Around 200 international and domestic flights were affected today as the Delhi airport saw another bout of fog that caused visibility to fall as low as 50 metres. According to sources at the airport and airlines, around 25 domestic and international flights were cancelled, while the rest were either delayed, rescheduled or diverted. Many flights saw delays of two to five hours.
A Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) spokesperson said that the low visibility conditions lasted for more than 11 hours from 1 am to 12.15 pm.
An official statement from Kingfisher Airlines said that four of its flights were cancelled today, while one was diverted to Jaipur. Jet Airways said it had one of its flights cancelled due to bad weather, while one was diverted. Around 15 flights of Air India were affected.
Air India executives said that there was some mismanagement in the handling of air traffic, which also led to delays. “For example, our flight from London to Delhi had to be diverted because of congestion, and not bad weather. One would expect congestion to ease after the two runways are operational, but that does not happen all the time. Peak flight hours are too close to each other which leads to cascading delays,” said an executive.
The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has been taking measures to face the fog-related problems at the airport. For instance, nodal officers of the DGCA are co-ordinating with officials of DIAL, Airports Authority of India (AAI) and airlines on daily basis to review the operations of domestic airlines during fog period. The DGCA has also directed the AAI to give priority departure clearance to flights operating to critical airfields, like Allahabad, Jammu, Kanpur, Leh, Pathankot and Srinagar, which have sunset restriction.
Airlines which have hitherto lagged behind in terms of preparedness for low visibility conditions are now gearing up with additional pilots. For instance, low-cost carrier SpiceJet, which does not have a single aircraft for CAT III operations, is now planning to retro-fit its aircraft with CAT III equipment and thereafter train its pilots for CAT III landings.
Among the Indian carriers, Air India has the maximum number of CAT III trained pilots — more than 400 out of around 1,200.