Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) has plunged into operational chaos after a sudden, short‑but‑intense spell of heavy rain and hail slammed parts of the national capital on Tuesday, triggering over 500 flight delays, at least 10 cancellations, and multiple diversions to nearby airports. The disruption, which hit during peak afternoon hours, left passengers scrambling at check‑in counters and baggage carousels, with many airlines forced to rework their schedules mid‑day.
What happened at the airport
Areas around the airport—Dwarka, Palam and Najafgarh—received localized showers accompanied by hail, prompting the airport to issue a public advisory on social media warning of “impacted” operations. An official quoted in media reports said five flights were diverted between 2 pm and 3.30 pm as gusty winds, rain and hail were recorded in the vicinity, with several more flights delayed. Overall, more than 500 arrivals and departures were marked as delayed on tracking platforms such as Flightradar24, with an average delay hovering around 30 minutes.
The IMD‑linked weather data showed 4.6 mm rainfall at Safdarjung and up to 9.8 mm at Palam over the 24‑hour period, with wind speeds reaching about 39 km per hour in some pockets, enough to throw off approach and landing patterns. The disruptions were compounded by 10 pre‑emptive cancellations on routes to and from Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Baghdad, with six inbound flights and four outbound flights scrapped after 11 pm on May 4 due to West‑Asia‑area security and drone‑attack‑linked complications.
Can today still see more disruptions?
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has refrained from issuing a colour‑coded alert for Wednesday but has flagged thundery activity in the evening due to an active western disturbance. That means the national capital is not out of the danger zone yet, even though the intense mid‑day hail burst has passed. Forecasts suggest that isolated thunderstorms and gusty winds remain possible in Delhi‑NCR later in the day, particularly after late afternoon, which could keep the airport on a reactive footing.
Airport authorities are urging passengers to check live status via airline apps or the official DIAL portal before heading to the terminals, as even short‑lived squalls can trigger cascading delays in a hub that handles roughly 1,300 flights a day. The current pattern—rain and hail followed by a brief lull and then a later‑evening pulse of thunderstorms—is becoming more common in pre‑monsoon May, and the events of the last 24 hours may push the airport to tighten its on‑day coordination routines with the Airports Authority of India and airlines.
Unless the skies remain relatively stable through the evening, the national capital is likely to see at least a second wave of patchy delays, even if the scale does not match Tuesday’s “over 500‑delays” episode. For now, the lesson for travellers is simple: flexibility, early‑evening buffer windows, and constant flight‑status checks are the only reliable hedge against Delhi’s increasingly volatile weather‑driven air‑traffic noise.
