Air traffic resumes at Srinagar Airport

Srinagar, Jan 7: Air traffic resumed on Thursday after remaining suspended at Srinagar International Airport for four days due to snowfall and poor visibility.
The first flight from Delhi has landed here, officials said adding that another flight from Jammu also arrived.
Fresh snowfall on Sunday forced cancellation of all incoming and outgoing flights at Srinagar airport. This was followed by heavy snowfall on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, they said, adding that all flights were cancelled. However, following improvement in the weather after Wednesday afternoon after fresh morning snowfall, snow clearance at run was completed last night.
Today the visibility has improved and run was fit for landing and taking off, they said.
Meanwhile, passengers said there was a heavy rush of travelers today due to cancellation of all flights for the past four days. ‘We were reaching airport in the morning only to return home in the afternoon daily for the past four days’, they said, adding that there was also confusion as the Airport authorities remained silent about the status of flights during all these days. ‘We had to return to our homes in the evening since Sunday after all flights were being cancelled. Tourists also had face the similar situation and had to return to their hotels. However, tourism department and house boat owners besides a student organisation have offered free accommodation to stranded tourists in the Valley. There was a sharp increase in the air fare after the highway closure and cancellation of air traffic, passengers alleged.
People associated with tourism industry also expressed concern over the steep increase in airfare. ‘We were expecting a good winter season but unjustified increase in airfare will force tourists to travel to other places in the country because of low air fare’, they said and demanded immediate intervention by Union Territory (UT) and central governments.