Dense fog continued to play havoc with flight schedules at the Delhi airport today. Over 70 flights were affected as visibility dropped to below 50 metres.
At least 26 domestic and international flights were cancelled, while 23, including seven international, were diverted and the rest delayed, said a source at the airport.
Weather officials said dense fog is expected to descend again in the early hours tomorrow.
The operations at the Indira Gandhi International airport were affected for 14 hours from 8.36 pm yesterday after the fog reduced the Runway Visibility Range to less than 100 metres.
Fog started to descend on the airport around 8 pm yesterday and gradually became dense. The runway visibility hovered between 50 metres and 175 metres through the night, resulting in disruptions in flight operations.
Even though sources at the airport say the visibility below 50 metres is not suitable for landing and take-off, they want the airport traffic controllers to be better trained to avoid any delays. “The airport in Delhi has state-of-the-art technology but the airport traffic controllers need to be trained to operate these hi-tech equipment. Even after the plane lands, guiding the plane to the parking bay or aerobridge leads to a lot of delay because the traffic controllers are not trained to fully utilise this system,” said an airline official, who did not want to be identified.
Twelve flights to Bangalore, Nagpur, Mumbai, Kolkata and Jaipur could not take off from Delhi due to the dense fog, while 11 flights from these cities could not land in the capital. Flights were diverted to cities including Bangalore, Lucknow, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Mumbai.
Yesterday, over 100 flights were affected when fog enveloped the airport. Over 40 flights, including 14 international ones, were diverted, while 38 were cancelled.
