Flights to Leh likely to face disruption for another week amid heatwave conditions

Kushok Bakula Rimpochee Airport

Flight operations at Leh’s Kushok Bakula Rimpochee Airport are likely to be impacted for another week amid an ongoing heatwave in the Himalayan region after around 20 flight cancellations since July 27, government officials and airline executives told Moneycontrol.

Leh, India's highest commercial airport, has seen flight disruptions since Saturday due to high temperatures reaching 36 degrees Celsius, making the high-altitude air too thin for safe aircraft operations.

"The Met Centre in Leh expects temperatures to remain high for at least another week, which is likely to cause flight disruptions at the Kushok Bakula Rimpochee Airport," a senior official from the Airports Authority of India (AAI) told Moneycontrol.

The official added that the AAI and Ministry of Civil Aviation were in talks with domestic airlines to reduce Leh flight cancellations, with solutions like operating smaller planes and compensation for operating at a lower capacity being discussed.

"Airlines have voiced concerns that operating flights at lower capacity will be commercially unviable unless they are compensated for empty seats. A proposal to compensate airlines is being discussed," the official said.

Airlines IndiGo and SpiceJet have cancelled a dozen flights scheduled around noon, marking potentially the first instance of flight cancellations owing to high temperatures.

It is a rare phenomenon considering Leh’s location at 11,000 feet where winter temperatures drop to -20°C.

Under normal conditions, the Leh airport sees around 15-16 aircraft arrivals and departures daily.

What is the issue?

Chetan Singh Solanki, an IIT Bombay professor, in a LinkedIn post, explained that the flight disruption in Leh was due to reduced air density in the region, which was caused by the unprecedented heatwave conditions.

The technical explanation for these cancellations is that the air had become thinner or less dense, Solanki said.

Air density refers to the concentration of air molecules within a given volume. At Leh's high altitude, the air pressure is naturally lower, which reduces air density.

Additionally, the elevated temperatures contributed to a further decrease in air density. Although Leh is typically dry, any rise in temperature, even without increased humidity, causes the air to expand and thin out.

Thinner air means that aircraft engines must exert more effort to produce the necessary thrust and lift, as there are fewer air molecules available for intake and combustion. This increased demand for power can surpass the aircraft's capabilities, rendering it unsafe to operate in such conditions, the professor explained.

Since 2024, Indian airlines witnessed 427 incidents of technical faults in their planes this year till July 19. From January 2024 till July 19, as many as 268 flights of scheduled passenger airlines were cancelled, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol told Rajya Sabha on July 30.