Airport and railway officials in Delhi said dense fog affected flight and rail operations in the capital for about 11 hours on Sunday, leaving thousands of passengers waiting for hours.
Affected Flight: There is chaos from earth to sky due to the weather in Delhi. Due to the ongoing dense fog and low visibility in Delhi, rail and air traffic is being badly affected. A total of 10 flights were diverted at Delhi airport on Sunday morning, while 20 flights were canceled and more than 400 flights were delayed. Airport and railway officials said flight and rail operations were affected in the capital due to dense fog for about 11 hours on Sunday, leaving thousands of passengers waiting for hours.
Officials said visibility dropped below 200 meters at 12.30 am and remained zero for about seven-and-a-half hours between 3 am and 10.30 am – resulting in around 400 flights being delayed at the airport, 10 diverted and less At least 20 flights were cancelled.
According to a report by Hindustan Times.com, the effect of the delay continued till the evening, although visibility improved for five hours due to good sunshine from 12 noon to 5 pm. Forecasts from the Meteorological Department (IMD) show that dense to very dense fog is likely to prevail on Monday as well, with an orange alert also in effect.
“It was the densest fog of the year, affecting flight operations and 10 routes at Jaipur airport due to low visibility,” an airport official said. A total of 10 flights were diverted at the airport. “This happened at different times between 4.30 am and noon.”
Although there is no official confirmation about the number of flights delayed, the Delhi airport website shows that around 200 flights were delayed throughout the day. Information about cancellation of at least 10 flights was found on the website. When visibility falls below 800 metres, the airport initiates Low Visibility Procedures (LVP) – the aim of which is to make landing easier for flights.
During this period, CAT-I procedures are in place, the most basic set of precautions to guide pilots in landing. Only CAT-II compliant flights and pilots are allowed to land when visibility is less than 550 metres. At the same time, CAT-IIIA pilots can land when the visibility is between 175 to 300 meters. CAT-III B is the most stringent qualification, allowing them to land even when visibility is 50 metres. While flights can land at the airport even if visibility is 50 metres, no flight is allowed to take off until the runway visibility limit (RVR) is 125 metres, leading to flight delays.
Flight operations were also disrupted due to ongoing work on one of the runways. Three of the four runways at the airport are operational from August 2023, and repairs have been underway on Runway 28/10 for the past four months. Two of the three runways are capable of allowing landings and takeoffs in CAT 3. In some cases when an airline pilot is not CAT 3 compliant, flights are also diverted.
Meanwhile, Northern Railways said that 22 trains coming from the capital or going towards the capital were delayed by at least an hour. This includes Puri-New Delhi Purushottam Express and Kanpur-New Delhi Shramshakti Express.
