As visibility improves, flight operations resume at Srinagar airport

The air-traffic to and fro Kashmir was restored on Saturday after remaining suspended for seven consecutive days due to poor visibility caused by heavy fog and snowfall in the valley, officials said.

"The flight operations resumed this (Saturday) afternoon after seven days, an official of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) said.

He said a SpiceJet flight landed at the Srinagar airport around 12:15 pm and then took off around 1 pm.

The official said while the morning flights were cancelled due to poor visibility, the afternoon flights are scheduled to operate at the airport in view of the improving weather conditions.

"The weather has improved and visibility has also improved. All afternoon flights are scheduled to operate normally now," he said.

Last Friday, several flights were cancelled due to bad weather, while no flight operations took place from Saturday to December 13.

The visibility at the airport, due to heavy fog, was less than 100 metres and such conditions were not suitable for flight operations.

"The required visibility for the flight operations is 1,000 to 1,200 metres. But, it was not more than 100 metres for the last week. So, the flight operations were hit," the official said.

Over the past one week, heavy fog engulfed most parts of the valley, affecting the visibility and causing problems to the people, especially motorists.