Amritsar airport shut after drone sighting, 7 flights sent to Delhi, Chandigarh

Flight operations at Amritsar airport were temporarily halted on Sunday night after drones were spotted in the area, disrupting several arrivals and forcing seven flights to divert to Delhi and Chandigarh, officials said.

The airport was shut for operations at around 9.50 pm after the Indian Air Force (IAF) alerted Air Traffic Control (ATC) about drone activity over the airfield. Several aircraft that were approaching Amritsar were already circling nearby when the suspension was announced.

Seven flights diverted

An Airports Authority of India (AAI) official told Hindustan Times, “Around seven flights thus had to be diverted, to Chandigarh and Delhi because planes scheduled to land at Amritsar were already holding near the airport area.”

A Delhi airport official said, “Two of the flights were diverted to Chandigarh and five of them were diverted to Delhi. These five included two flights each of Air India, IndiGo and one of Air India Express.”

Following the drone sighting, a committee was formed under the standard operating procedure (SOP) to assess whether the activity posed any danger to aircraft movements.

“After assessing the situation, the committee decided to temporarily suspend the flight operations at the airport at around 9.50 pm,” the AAI official added.

Airport resumes operations

The committee reviewed the situation again around 11 pm after no further drones were seen or reported near the airport.

Another official said, “The committee reviewed the situation around 11 pm because no more drones were seen or reported around the airport. The airport was thus cleared to resume operations at 11.15 pm.”

Five of the seven diverted flights subsequently returned to Amritsar.

An Air India Express flight from Dubai was among those affected. A passenger posted on X, “ #Amritsar airport was apparently closed for landings for almost 2 hours tonight. Our Dubai → Amritsar flight kept circling overhead before eventually being diverted to Delhi.

We’ve now landed in Delhi… and the latest update is that the same aircraft will apparently fly back to Amritsar once the airport reopens. What a night. And honestly, full credit to the Air India Express crew — they handled the whole situation incredibly calmly, kept everyone updated and never let the uncertainty turn into panic. The airport closure is a story. The crew’s handling of it deserves an appreciation post.”

An airline official said the aircraft had enough fuel to remain in a holding pattern for over an hour.