By – Prakarsh Kastwar
Due to the heavy fog at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, around 10 planes were diverted and more than 100 were delayed.
The national capital has faced severe cold over the last three days, with the lowest minimum temperature of the winter season on Sunday. Passengers at Delhi Airport are feeling the effects of the city’s enveloping dee
On Sunday, IndiGo Airlines issued an official statement recognizing the impact of low visibility and severe fog conditions across North India on their aircraft operations. “On January 14, 2024, IndiGo flight operations were impacted due to low visibility and dense fog conditions across North India.” This had a knock-on effect on our activities all day. Our team kept customers informed of any delays and cancellations across airports and made every attempt to assist them. “We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this has caused our passengers,” the airlines added.
p fog, as aircraft operations were hampered on Sunday due to thick fog. According to officials, as reported by the news agency PTI, roughly 10 flights were diverted and more than 100 were delayed due to the intense fog’s low visibility.
According to the PTI report, visibility at Indira Gandhi International Airport was almost zero between 4 a.m. and 10 a.m., resulting in no airplane departures and only 15 arrivals within that time period. The airport handles approximately 60 departures and arrivals per hour in typical weather circumstances.
Officials further indicated that the ten diversions happened because the pilots on the affected flights were not trained for CAT III landings.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the heavy fog this season continued the longest.
Various airline delays
Indigo :
On Sunday, IndiGo Airlines issued an official statement recognizing the impact of low visibility and severe fog conditions across North India on their aircraft operations. “On January 14, 2024, IndiGo flight operations were impacted due to low visibility and dense fog conditions across North India.” This had a knock-on effect on our activities all day. Our team kept customers informed of any delays and cancellations across airports and made every attempt to assist them. “We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this has caused our passengers,” the airlines added.
Air India :
Due to the high fog, one of the affected flights at Delhi airport, notably AI 185 to Vancouver, had to be rescheduled. Passengers had to wait for a long period on the plane before they could deboard. The flight, which was originally scheduled for a little after 5.00 a.m., was unable to take off, prompting the decision to reschedule the departure in accordance with flight duty timing criteria. The rescheduled departure is now set for 11.30 p.m., and affected customers have been accommodated.
Vistara and Akasa Air :
Vistara and Akasa Air also discussed how dense fog affects their operations. Vistara warned of possible delays in arrivals and departures from Delhi owing to low visibility. Similarly, Akasa Air stated that bad weather in Delhi, Chennai, Varanasi, Bagdogra, and Lucknow disrupted flight schedules and caused delays on Sunday.
Specific flight cancellations in Varanasi were also noted by Akasa Air. The flights affected were Bengaluru-Varanasi, Varanasi-Mumbai, Mumbai-Varanasi, and Varanasi-Bengaluru, with cancellations reported in posts at 12.12 pm and 1.35 pm.
For the next three to four days, there will be fog.
As the freezing temperatures continue, the weather service has issued a warning that dense fog is likely to persist in isolated pockets of northwest India for the next three to four days.
“A thick fog layer has formed over Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, North Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh.” Passengers on highways must drive cautiously and solely with fog lights,” the IMD tweeted from its X handle.
“Travel should be halted until the fog clears by morning, especially on expressways.” Since 0230 hrs IST today, there has been very dense fog reported over Amritsar, Chandigarh, Patiala, Ambala, Ganganagar, Palam, Safdarjung, and Lucknow, with visibility of 0 meters.