337 flights delayed at Delhi airport amid dense fog on Thursday morning

Flight operations at the Delhi airport were disrupted for the fourth consecutive day on Thursday. According to flightradar24, a total of 337 flights were delayed at the Delhi airport today morning.

Multiple flights were also diverted from the Delhi airport to other nearby airports. The Delhi airport handles around 1,200 flights every day.

Air India today announced that passengers flying to and from the Delhi airport during the winter season will be allowed to reschedule or cancel their bookings at no extra cost if their flight is likely to be affected by major fog delays.

Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia had earlier this month told Rajya Sabha that in order to prepare for the onset of the fog period, the number of inspections and special audits were increased over the last two years to enhance various facilities at airports and in the area of air navigation services.

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"As a result, despite an increase in flights by about 20 per cent, flight cancellations, which were 0.09 per cent during 2021-2022 of total flight movements, reduced to 0.05 per cent of total flight movements in 2022-2023," he stated.

Scindia had told Rajya Sabha that before the onset of the fog season, airlines had been instructed to make changes in their flight schedules in such a way that CAT-II and CAT-III non-compliant aircraft would not be operated during this period.

CAT-II and CAT-III refer to the different categories of Instrument Landing System (ILS) approaches, which are used to guide aircraft during their descent and landing in low-visibility conditions. A CAT-II-compliant aircraft can land on a runway with visibility as low as 300 metres.