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Flight, train delays continue through the fourth day amid fog in Delhi NCR

As peak winter prevails over the northern states of India, airlines and trains struggle with a fourth day of disturbances because of dense thick fog and high alerts in these states

A trains runs through a dense layer of fog on a cold and wintry morning

A trains runs through a dense layer of fog on a cold and wintry morning

Sonika Nitin Nimje New Delhi

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Flight operations kept on being influenced by dense fog at the Delhi air terminal for the fourth day on Friday. In Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, and Chandigarh, a red alert for dense fog has been issued. Numerous flights have been delayed as a result of the dense fog that is covering the national capital.
 
Fog and reduced visibility caused several flights to experience delays in Delhi on Friday, December 29. Many flights were likewise rerouted from the Delhi airport to other nearby airports.
 
Recently, the Delhi airport saw disturbances in around 134 flights both domestic and international. Among these, 35 international departures and 28 international arrivals were impacted, alongside 43 domestic flights and 28 domestic arrivals encountering delays.
 

The impact of fog on flights

As per airport sources, a sum of 58 flights, generally domestic carrier operations, confronted diversions because of extreme weather situations from midnight on December 25 to 6:00 a.m. on December 28. '
 
The sources claimed that the primary reason for these redirections was the absence of training among pilots to operate flights under low visibility situations.

ALSO READ: Delhi AQI: Air quality lingers in 'very poor' category; dense fog persists
 
An overall of 13 IndiGo flights, alongside 10 flights each from Air India and SpiceJet, were redirected during this period. Also, Vistara saw the rerouting of 5 flights, Alliance Air experienced redirections for 2 flights and Akasa Air had 3 flights redirected at Delhi Airport. These flights were diverted to different airports, including Lucknow, Jaipur, and Indore.
 
Over 1,300 flights are handled daily at the country's largest airport, Delhi Airport. The national capital has been covered in dense fog lately, especially in the early morning hours.

Impact of fog on trains (as per the so far records)

Air travel as well as railway services were affected by the dense fog.
Around 11 trains scheduled to enter Delhi faced delays, causing inconvenience to passengers, the Northern Railway said in a statement. The railway authorities have advised passengers to check the live status of trains before embarking on their journeys. 

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First Published: Dec 29 2023 | 1:18 PM IST

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