This Republic Day, more than 100 Delhi flights to be cancelled from Jan 18–26

Travellers flying in and out of Delhi between January 18 and January 26 are likely to face some real trouble as more than 700 flights scheduled to operate between these dates are being cancelled.

Reason: The reason why these flights from Delhi are being cancelled is the takeover of the airspace by the Indian Air Force for preparing of the Republic Day flypast.

Flights that will be cancelled:

Although the airspace is supposed to be closed for seven days from January 18th to 26th, January 19th and January 25th are the exceptions. On both of these days, flights will operate as per their respective schedules to and from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA). On the days of flight restrictions imposed on the Delhi airport, the official time window of the airspace closure would be from 10.30 am to 12.15 pm with a 30-minute buffer. This will in turn lead to the cancellation of more than 100 flights each day, affecting as many as 10,000 passengers on a single day.

The scenario

Although airspace closures are not new around the Republic Day, but then in previous years, flights at these times were usually rescheduled instead of being cancelled. Although the concerned airlines are yet to announce which flights would be cancelled, alternatives are also less likely. The general rule suggests that if an airline cancels its flight less than two weeks and up to a day before travel, it is supposed to arrange an alternative flight which is scheduled within the next two hours. However, since this situation is not under their control, there is a hardly a chance for such a thing to happen.
Read more:
Republic Day 2018: everything a traveller needs to do for witnessing it live