Srinagar flights resume a day after heavy snowfall

Srinagar, January 9

The air link between Kashmir and the rest of the country was restored on Sunday, a day after heavy snowfall in the Valley forced cancellation of all flights here, officials said.

Heavy snowfall and poor visibility had forced the cancellation of the 40 scheduled flights from the Srinagar airport on Saturday. “The air traffic to and from Srinagar airport was restored on Sunday morning as flights arrived as per schedule,” an official of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) said.

The official said snowfall had reduced visibility at the airport to less than 600 metres on Saturday. Nearly 270 flights have been cancelled since January 4 due to inclement weather. Some of the airlines have stopped taking fresh bookings for Srinagar sector to clear the backlog created by the flight cancellations.

Meanwhile, minimum temperature settled below freezing point at most of the places in the Valley. Gulmarg recorded -10° Celsius, a drop of more than five degrees compared to the previous night, MeT officials said. Pahalgam recorded -1.8° Celsius, Srinagar 0.3° Celsius, Qazigund -0.4° Celsius, Kokernag -2.3° Celsius and Kupwara -0.6° Celsius. — PTI