After several flight cancellations, DGCA pulls up airlines for poor fog preparedness

Civil aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Thursday directed domestic passenger carriers to follow its guidelines on low visibility operations and not to plan flights to and from IGI airport during zero visibility periods.

The DGCA gave the directions through a letter to the airlines. The development comes after 38 flight cancellations and 362 delays were reported after low visibility procedures (LVP) were initiated at the IGI airport on Wednesday.

"Today IGI Airport again experienced a spell of fog when the duration of LVP was for 15 hours and 26 minutes. However, at no stage RVR (runway visual range) on both the runways had gone below 125 meters," the DGCA letter read.

"During the LVP period, there were three diversions one each of Air India (AI-974), Air India Express (IX-116) and Spicejet (SG-012)."

"Further there had been 38 cancellations (24 departures and 14 arrivals) and 362 delays (179 departures and 183 arrivals).

According to the letter, the DGCA directed the domestic airlines not to plan flights to and from IGI airport during zero visibility period.

Further, the letter directed all the airlines to reschedule non-CAT (category) III compliant aircrafts operations to and from IGI airport between 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

The letter added that passengers should be provided prior information regarding the rescheduling of their flights.

"In case of flight delays, the passengers to be taken care of as per the provisions of CAR (Civil Aviation Regulation)," the letter added.