Pssngrs taken by road to Nashik after Alliance Air cancels Pune flight over NOTAM issue

PTI, Nov 17, 2019, 9:38 AM IST

Pune: Alliance Air (AI) on Saturday cancelled its flight on Nashik-Pune route in view of NOTAM issued at the Pune airport, an AI official said.

In view of the cancellation, 18 out of the total 28 passengers were taken to Pune through road transport, the official said.

Alliance Air is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Air India.

The flight was coming from Hyderabad to Pune via Nasik and was supposed to land at the Pune airport at 9.30 am on Saturday.

“On Saturdays, the flight usually arrives in Nasik at 8 am and reaches Pune by 9.30 am. Today the flight got delayed at Hyderbad and reached Nasik at 10 am, and by the time NOTAM (notice to airmen) was in place and the runway at the Pune airport was to be closed for maintenance,” the official said.

NOTAM or Notice to Airmen is given to pilots includes information concerning the establishment, condition or change in any aeronautical facility, service, procedure or hazard on the flight route.

The NOTAM at Pune airport was issued in view of the closure of the runaway for maintenance on Saturday after 10.30 am in the morning, which is a weekly exercise.

Every Saturday, the runway remains closed between 10.30 am and 5.30 pm for maintenance, and airline operations are not allowed during this time.

“Since runway was closed for maintenance and NOTAM was issued, we had to cancel the flight and out of 28 passengers around 18 passengers were given surface transport and they were brought to Pune by different cars safely,” the official added.