National carrier Air India had to divert its Delhi-London flight to Paris on Thursday, while Kingfisher Airlines, which has regular flights from Mumbai and New Delhi to Heathrow had to cancel its flights, as airports in London remained shut on account of drifting ash following a volcanic eruption in Iceland. Jet Airways too cancelled its flights to London and back from Mumbai and New Delhi on Thursday due to the disruptive conditions.
More than 250 flights from London?s Heathrow and Gatwick Airports including to and from India were grounded on Thursday due to ash from the spewing volcano.
A spokesperson from Jet Airways, which also flies to Heathrow said, ?Airports in London will be closed on Thursday evening on account of drifting of ash following a volcanic eruption in Iceland. On account of this situations, Jet?s London-Mumbai, Mumbai-London, Delhi-London and London- Delhi flights have been cancelled.? The spokesperson further added the airline is further monitoring the situation closely and plans to schedule the flights as soon as the London airport re-opens.
Similarly, Kingfisher said the airline is hopeful that the situation will improve, but at the same time they are giving the option to passengers who have already booked their seats on the sector to either refund or rebook their seats as per their requirement.
Analysts say airlines will suffer a dent on revenues of approximately Rs 1-1.5 crore on each flight.
Meanwhile, the drifting ash also affected flights from Scotland with air traffic controller warning that more airliners could be disrupted as the volcano was expected to continue eruptions for the second time in less than a month.