31 flights delayed, 19 cancelled due to fog

New Delhi, Jan 3 (PTI) After a day's respite, a thick
blanket of fog again engulfed the Indira Gandhi International
airport Saturday morning causing inconvenience to passengers
as 31 domestic and international flights were delayed, 19 were
cancelled and three diverted to Mumbai.

About 19 early morning flights for Chennai, Mumbai,
Hyderabad, Jaipur, Thiruvananthapuram, Bikaner, Ludhiana,
Udaipur, Rajkot and Ahmedabad were cancelled as the general
visibility dropped to below 50 metres and the runaway
visibility range dipped to 100 metres in the wee hours,
airport sources said.

This was much below the required minimum of 150 metres
for the aircraft to take off in poor visibility conditions,
they said.

After a relatively clear day yesterday, fog descended on
the national capital shortly before midnight. It enveloped the
airport area at 10 pm Thursday night, forcing airport
authorities to implement low visibility procedures.

Some of the international flights, which generally
operate during the night from here, also got delayed due to
the fog. Three international flights were diverted to Mumbai.

About 13 flights, mostly of Air India and Indigo, took
off for their destinations in CAT-IIIB conditions.

The fog situation began to improve at around 10 am, when
the runway visibility range increased to 700 metres for main
runway (28/10), while it remained 400 metres for the new
runway.

Passengers were a harassed lot and said they had not
received any information about their flights.

"I had to go to Kolkata for an urgent meeting, but my
early morning flight was delayed by three hours and I don't
know whether it will take off then," said P K Basu, a
passenger.

He had left home at around 5 am to catch his flight and
said he had not received any information regarding the delay.

Similarly, another passenger Pawan Sharma, who had to go
to Lucknow reached the airport at 7 am for his flight which
was scheduled to take off at around 9 am, but was delayed by
three hours.

Sharma complained that he had not been informed by the
airline of the delay and the flight information had not been
updated on their website.

Fog has been affecting the flight movement here since
Monday and has led to the delay of more than 500 flights and
cancellation of around 75 others. PTI