Srinagar airport back to normal; Haj flights resume from Wednesday

Flight operations are gradually returning to normal in northern and western India as 32 airports affected by Operation Sindoor begin to reopen. A handful of commercial flights have resumed at some of these airports, marking the initial phase of restoring full-scale air connectivity across the region.

One of the most notable signs of this recovery came from Srinagar Airport, which has returned to normalcy. On Wednesday morning, it saw the successful departure of the second batch of Haj pilgrims heading to Makkah, Saudi Arabia, as part of the annual Haj pilgrimage. The first batch had departed On May 4. 

Initially, Air India had announced plans to operate flights to and from several airports including Srinagar, Jammu, Leh, Jodhpur, Amritsar, Bhuj, Jamnagar, Chandigarh, and Rajkot from Tuesday. However, most of these flights were later cancelled, except for those operating to and from Srinagar.

Both Air India and IndiGo have now indicated that they are progressively resuming services to these destinations. Flight bookings for many of these sectors have reopened.

SpiceJet also issued a statement confirming the resumption of scheduled services to Srinagar, including the commencement of Haj 2025 flights starting May 14, using its A340 aircraft.

According to industry insiders, a complete restoration of services is expected in phases over the coming days, provided there’s no further escalation in India-Pakistan tensions. Civil Aviation Minister K Ram Mohan Naidu has urged airlines to return to normal schedules by Thursday. All airlines have responded positively, according to his post on social media platform X.

The 32 airports impacted were collectively handling around 50,000 passengers daily, leading to the cancellation of over 1,000 flights.