Air operations at the Indira Gandhi International airport in New Delhi were disrupted on Tuesday due to dense fog, affecting the schedules of over 35 domestic and international flights. "After a clear day on Monday, IGI airport was blanketed with dense fog leading to cancellations of 11 flights. Twenty-four inbound and outbound flights were rescheduled and two were diverted as the runway visibility dropped to 150 metres late last night," an airport official said.
The fog started to descend on the airport around 10.30 pm and the runway visibility started to deteriorate forcing the airport authorities to implement low visibility procedures and flights were operating with the help of instrument landing system. The runway visibility further dropped to less than 150 metres around midnight, disrupting the schedules of international flights.
Flights from Dubai, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Singapore and Beijing were delayed by upto three to four hours.Due to this, outbound flights to these destinations had to be rescheduled,sources said. Though visibility improved in the wee hours and the runway visibility increased to 1500 metres for the main runway and hovered around 500 metres for the new runway, it once again dipped to a low of 950 metres and 350 metres in the morning. Eight domestic flights to Srinagar, Amritsar, Imphal, Patna and Allahabad were either delayed or rescheduled due to poor weather conditions in those cities. Some flight, which were scheduled to arrive late at night, were also rescheduled due to poor visibility at the Delhi airport, sources said..
Delhiites woke up to a foggy and chilly morning today with the mercury settling at a low of 8.4 degree Celsius. The minimum was higher by 0.2 degree Celsius from Monday's minimum temperature. The met department is predicting similar conditions for Wednesday with fog likely to descend on the capital early morning and the temperature oscillating between nine and 19
degree Celsius.
