Fog plays spoilsport at IGI, 100 flights affected

Around 100 domestic and international flights operating out of the Indira Gandhi International Airport here were affected today as thick fog enveloped the capital, with visibility dropping to near zero. To mitigate the problem, government took steps including relaxing the visibily criteria for flight take-offs.

Dense fog led to cancellation of 38 flights and the rest were diverted and delayed, including 14 international flights. The flights were diverted to Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow and Hyderabad.

“The airport was closed for nearly two hours as visibility fell below 100 metres. Low visibility procedure was enforced at the airport at 1940 hrs yesterday due to fog. Visibility improved after mid-day today with the fog partially clearing,” said sources at the airport, who did not want to be identified.

Civil aviation secretary S N A Zaidi reviewed the situation with stakeholders, including airline officials, Delhi International Airport Limited, Directorate General of Civil Aviation and Metereology Department.

Under the new rules put in place, the visibility range has been brought down from 175 metres to 150 metres for operation of large aircraft and 150 metres to 125 metres for smaller planes, Zaidi told reporters after the meeting.

A release from the airport operator said 326 flights had operated till evening, including 130 using the CAT-III B instrument landing system. Many airlines delayed their departure and rescheduled these. Flight delays were between two and five hours.

Dense fog started to descend on the airport late last night and 17 domestic and two international flights scheduled to arrive here were diverted to Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Lucknow.

Many domestic airlines also cancelled their flights to Lucknow, Jaipur, Kullu, Mumbai, Leh, Amritsar, Patna, Chandigarh, Goa and Srinagar due to dense fog. Air India rescheduled its flights to New York, Chicago and Toronto after visibility dropped below the accepted limit. The thick fog cover here had its cascading effect on operations at Mumbai airport, with six Delhi-Mumbai-Delhi flights being cancelled and a couple diverted.