Flight Cancelled: Why were many flights cancelled just 12 hours after being resumed, what did Indigo and Air India say?

IndiGo and Air India have again canceled many of their flights on Tuesday. The aviation company has canceled its flights to Srinagar, Jammu, Amritsar, Chandigarh, and three other border cities. Air India said that it has canceled the operation of incoming and outgoing flights to Jammu, Leh, Jodhpur, Amritsar, Bhuj, Jamnagar, Chandigarh, and Rajkot. IndiGo has also canceled its flights to Jammu, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Leh, Srinagar, and Rajkot.

IndiGo and Air India advisory for today
IndiGo issued a travel advisory. It said that, given the new developments and giving top priority to the safety of passengers, flights to and from Jammu, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Leh, Srinagar, and Rajkot have been canceled till May 13, 2025.

After this, Air India informed that, keeping in mind the safety of the passengers, flights to and from Jammu, Leh, Jodhpur, Amritsar, Bhuj, Jamnagar, Chandigarh, and Rajkot have been canceled for today.

First, understand this whole matter of aviation services in a few words...

The civil aviation regulator had resumed the operation of civilian flights at 32 airports in the northern and western parts of the country, including Srinagar and Amritsar, on the previous day. However, on Monday, Air India and Indigo flights to some border cities had to be canceled due to drone movement in Samba. Earlier on May 9, the decision to close 32 airports in the country was taken, given the military conflict between India and Pakistan. Then, on May 10, there was a ceasefire between the two countries. Two days later, on the morning of May 12, it was decided to restart the closed airports.

Now, let us explain in detail why and when 32 airports had to be closed.

On May 9, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the concerned aviation authorities issued a series of Notices to Airmen (NOTAM), announcing the temporary closure of 32 airports in northern and western India for all civilian flight operations. The DGCA had said in a release that this ban will be effective from 9 May 2025 to 14 May 2025 (which will be till 0529 IST on 15 May 2025) due to operational reasons. These airports included Adhampur, Ambala, Amritsar, Avantipur, Bathinda, Bhuj, Bikaner, Chandigarh, Halwara, Hindon, and Jammu. Earlier, at least 24 airports were ordered to be closed for civil flight operations till May 10.

When and why did the order to resume operations at 32 airports come?

Yesterday, AAI announced that civil flight operations have been resumed at 32 airports that were temporarily closed last week, given the military standoff between India and Pakistan. On Saturday, India and Pakistan agreed to stop all firing and military action on land, air, and sea with immediate effect. After this, this step was taken.

India closed its airspace for Pakistan on 30 April.
India closed its airspace for Pakistani airlines on 22 April as a retaliatory action in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack. 26 people were killed in the Pahalgam airstrike. Earlier on 24 April, Pakistan closed its airspace for India.

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