India, May 3 -- Over 500 flights were delayed, several cancelled and a few diverted at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport on Friday with most of the disruptions taking place in the morning hours amid heavy rains and thunderstorms, throwing out of place plans of thousands of passengers, airport and airlines' officials said.

According to Flightradar24, a live flight tracking website, the airport saw a peak average delay of 50 minutes in departures and arrivals. It reduced to around 35 minutes few hours later.

Airport officials said that "flight departures had to be paused for a brief period of time due to heavy rains in the morning, leading for delays up to an hour in departures."

An airport official said, "The adverse weather c...