12 Delhi-Bound Flights Diverted to Jaipur Due to Poor Weather, All Return by 3:20 PM
Why It MattersSudden weather-driven diversions show how quickly a single airport's disruption can push aircraft movements onto a nearby field, straining handling capacity for a few hours.
What happened
Poor weather conditions at Delhi airport disrupted flight operations on Monday, forcing 12 flights to divert to Jaipur airport between 11:20 AM and 12:30 PM. Nine of the diverted flights were domestic and three were international, according to the official spokesperson of Jaipur airport.
The domestic diversions included IndiGo's Chennai-Delhi flight, Air India Express flights on the Indore-Delhi, Imphal-Delhi, Ranchi-Delhi, Chennai-Delhi, and Bhubaneswar-Delhi routes, SpiceJet's Leh-Delhi flight, and IndiGo's Siliguri-Delhi and Goa-Delhi flights. The three international flights diverted to Jaipur were Air India's Dubai-Delhi flight, Air India's Singapore-Delhi flight, and Air India Express' Sharjah-Delhi flight.
Airport sources said the diversions temporarily increased aircraft movement at Jaipur as planes were held until conditions improved. Once weather at Delhi airport cleared and operations resumed, all 12 diverted aircraft began returning, with all departures from Jaipur for Delhi completed by approximately 3:20 PM. Passengers on the affected flights experienced delays while aircraft awaited weather clearance at Delhi, an airport officer said.
Industry impact & what to watch
Weather diversions of this kind are a routine feature of Delhi's traffic pattern, where a short spell of poor visibility or storms can push a batch of arrivals onto the nearest suitable alternate until conditions clear. Jaipur's role here reflects how alternate airports absorb a temporary surge in movements, holding aircraft on the ground and coordinating a rapid return once the primary airport reopens.
The mechanism depends on the alternate airport having enough ramp space, fuel and handling capacity to accept several aircraft within a short window, then clear them out again within a few hours. Twelve aircraft arriving inside roughly an hour and departing again inside four hours is a meaningful but manageable load for a single day.
What happens next hinges on whether Delhi sees repeat weather disruption in the near term, which would determine whether Jaipur or other alternates face similar short-notice diversions again.
