KUALA LUMPUR: Flights departing from Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport or Subang Airport and Kuala Lumpur International Airport to various locations were delayed due to bad weather conditions this evening.
Passengers were believed to be stranded for nearly an hour causing congestion at both airports.
The flight disruption was not only experienced by local flight operators, but international flights to various destinations were also affected. Most of the flights, both to domestic and international destinations that were to depart from 4pm onwards were the ones most affected, due to heavy rain.
Heavy rain and thunderstorms pose a high risk for planes to fly as pilots experience low visibility and turbulence due to the rain and strong winds.
Among the affected destinations were Jeddah, Thailand, Hong Kong Indonesia, Qingdao, Singapore, Manila, Penang, Kota Baru, Kota Kinabalu and Kuala Terengganu.
Based on the real-time flight tracker, Flight Radar, there were at least 10 carriers that were affected by the bad weather condition that struck the Klang Valley.
Malaysia Airlines from KLIA to Manila was delayed by over an hour, when the flight scheduled for 4.50pm only got clearance to depart at almost 6pm. Firefly to Kuala Terengganu scheduled to depart at 6.15pm have yet to depart, as of 7pm today.
Air Asia's flight from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu scheduled to leave at 5pm was delayed by 52 minutes due to the heavy rain and thunderstorms. According to Flight Radar, the flight departed at 5.49pm and is scheduled to arrive in Kota Kinabalu at 8.27pm.
Firefly flight to Kota Baru scheduled for 5.30pm left Subang Airport at 6.10pm.
Batik Air flight to Kota Baru scheduled to depart at 6pm was also said to be delayed due to the poor weather conditions.
Meanwhile flights from KLIA were also affected with some passengers fussing over the delay. Garuda Indonesia, Thai Airways International, Qingdao Airlines and several other carriers were also caught up in the disruption this evening.
Among the flights that were delayed at KLIA are Eithad Airways from KL to Denpasar was said to experience a 52 minutes hold up.
Batik Air flight to Jeddah was delayed by about 25 minutes and Batik flight to Phuket was to depart at 5.25pm but only left 45 minutes later.
The delay of these flights had allegedly caused a long flight queue for the later flights as air traffic controllers had to clear the backlog of the delayed aircraft.
Efforts are underway to obtain an official statement from the airline operators as well as the airport authorities for the official number of flights disrupted.