 "Fog hits operations at Delhi airport")
The season’s first fog crippled flight operations at the Delhi airport with delays, diversions and flight disruptions across the domestic network. Around 200 departures from Delhi were delayed and no flight took off from the city for six hours till 10 am as visibility was below the minimum requirement.
Delhi, India’s busiest airport, handles nearly 900 flights a day and is the only one equipped with CAT IIIB instrument landing system. This allows landing in 50-metre visibility and take-off in 125 metres. However, visibility was around 75 metres between 4 am and 10 am during which no plane could take off. The result was system-wide delays when departures resumed after 10 am. Arrivals were less impacted though 10 flights were diverted early in the morning. A few flights had to be diverted as they were unable to land in Delhi because of poor visibility.
While runway 28 was opened for departures at 10.15 am, runway 29 was available from 10.50 am with improvement in visibility.
Jet Airways said it cancelled six flights from Delhi.
In all, 22 flights in Delhi including 18 departures and four arrivals were cancelled.
“Refreshments were served on board and guests were kept updated on the status of the flights. Guests were (either) offered refunds as per policy and civil aviation regulations or accommodated on subsequent flights,” Jet Airways said.
On whether the Delhi airport should upgrade to CAT IIIC instrument landing facility, Amber Dubey, head of aerospace and defence practice at KPMG, said, “There are some operational issues for this kind of upgradation regarding safety as CAT IIIC requires pilots to land in complete blindness.”
Delhi, India’s busiest airport, handles nearly 900 flights a day and is the only one equipped with CAT IIIB instrument landing system. This allows landing in 50-metre visibility and take-off in 125 metres. However, visibility was around 75 metres between 4 am and 10 am during which no plane could take off. The result was system-wide delays when departures resumed after 10 am. Arrivals were less impacted though 10 flights were diverted early in the morning. A few flights had to be diverted as they were unable to land in Delhi because of poor visibility.
While runway 28 was opened for departures at 10.15 am, runway 29 was available from 10.50 am with improvement in visibility.
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IndiGo has 41 departures from Delhi till 10 am and has the most number of flights among domestic airlines from the city. It was forced to cancel several flights across the network through the day as fog disrupted operations.
Jet Airways said it cancelled six flights from Delhi.
In all, 22 flights in Delhi including 18 departures and four arrivals were cancelled.
“Refreshments were served on board and guests were kept updated on the status of the flights. Guests were (either) offered refunds as per policy and civil aviation regulations or accommodated on subsequent flights,” Jet Airways said.
On whether the Delhi airport should upgrade to CAT IIIC instrument landing facility, Amber Dubey, head of aerospace and defence practice at KPMG, said, “There are some operational issues for this kind of upgradation regarding safety as CAT IIIC requires pilots to land in complete blindness.”