Dense fog at IGI airport affects over 450 flights

New Delhi: Dense fog in several parts of Delhi disrupted operations of 450 flights at the IGI Airport on Friday morning, an airport official said.

Flight operations were hit between 5.30 am and 1 pm.

“Around 97 per cent of these 450 flights were either departing or arriving beyond their scheduled time owing to dense fog that remained till 10.20 am. Rest were either diverted or cancelled,” the official said.

Departures were largely put on hold between 5.30 am and 10.20 am. Arrivals were possible only intermittently between 6.00 am and 7.20 am, another official said. Five flights were diverted between 5.30 am and 10.20 am from the airport. One of the flights was coming from Singapore and it was diverted to Kolkata. Four flights — coming from Bangkok, Dubai, Guwahati, and Muscat respectively — were diverted to Jaipur between 7.30 am and 10.20 am, he said.

“Very few aircrafts are departing and that too on the basis of their size, visibility, and ATC (air traffic control) clearance for taking off,” the official said. At the Delhi airport, the minimum runway visibility required to take off is 125 metres. The airport was facing low visibility conditions since 4.00 am due to dense fog. “The visibility significantly improved between 9.20 am and 10.20 am. This allowed us to resume departures properly from 10.20 am onwards,” he said.

Vistara Airlines tweeted at 8.23 am, “Due to dense fog and poor visibility in Delhi delays are expected for both arrivals and departures with likely consequential impact on flights across the network.” “Currently, flight departures from Delhi are on hold and will resume by 0930 hrs subject to weather clearance,” it added.

Jet Airways tweeted at 6.33 am that some of its flights had been affected due to dense fog.