Thick fog disrupts flights to and out of Delhi

Dense fog over Delhi and many other parts of northern India disrupted operations at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) here, affecting around 50 flights, airport sources said.

The fog started descending on the city last night and by midnight visibility on the runways had fallen to less than 100 metres, the sources said.

An official said that only Category III A and III B operations were possible for several hours till 1000 hours this morning. By then, visibility had improved to about 350 metres, which made Category II operations possible, they said.

Scores of domestic and international flights were delayed while at least six flights were diverted to other cities such as Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Mumbai, they said. Some flights were cancelled and some more were rescheduled.

The runway visibility started to drop late last night when fog started to descend on the airport. The general visibility dipped to zero while the runway visibility hovered between 50 to 100 metres, forcing the airport authorities to implement low visibility procedures for flights to operate using CAT-III B instrument landing system (ILS).

Scores of flights had similarly been affected yesterday also because of thick fog.

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) had forecast thick fog over Delhi this morning and a clear sky later in the day.

NNN