Amid chaotic scenes, flight operations resume at Srinagar airport

Srinagar: Amid chaotic scenes, flight operations resumed at Srinagar airport on Thursday after four days of cancellations due to the heavy snowfall.

On Thursday morning, the first flight landed at the Srinagar airport, a day after snow was cleared from the runway by BRO.

“We are happy to restore and resume flight operation just after heavy snowfall and bad weather condition without leaving any stone related to safety parameters for aircraft operation. We welcome our esteemed passengers again.@Aaisnrairport @aaiRedNR @AAI_Official,” the official Twitter handle of Srinagar airport tweeted.

A large number of passengers was seen walking on foot towards the airport as the snow was not fully cleared from the roads.

Passengers said they had to walk a long distance as there was severe traffic jams as authorities had not properly cleared the snow from the airport road.

“The road from Humhama to the airport has not been fully cleared due to which the passengers had to walk. The airport authorities should have done all the arrangements knowing that flights have been canceled for the last four days,” a passenger told The Kashmir Monitor.

A lot of stranded passengers complained that their tickets have been rescheduled to different dates.

“We are badly stuck at Srinagar from January 3. Fight operators are giving us tickets for Jan 20. We are facing lots of problems,” said Piyush Pareek, a stranded passenger.

Passengers also complained that the washrooms at the airport were not cleaned. “The washrooms are dirty. It seems the airport authorities forgot to clean them,” they said.