Another foggy day at IGI, 150 flights hit

For the second consecutive day, dense fog played havoc at the IGI airport on Tuesday. Poor visibility hit over 150 flights, leaving thousands of domestic air passengers stranded for hours, making the airport’s departure terminal look as chaotic as Old Delhi railway station.

Airport officials said the fog struck at midnight and blurred visibility till 11 am. “Low visibility procedures were implemented at midnight and it continued till 11 am,” said a senior airport official.

After midnight, runway visibility was below 500m on both runways (Nos 29 and 28). The fog forced nine international flights to be diverted to Mumbai. Some Delhi-bound domestic flights were diverted to Jaipur. Five flights, including two Delhi-Mumbai ones, got cancelled. Altogether, over a 100 flights were hit.

For passengers it was an 11-hour ordeal. “The airport handles over 60 flights an hour.
But today it handled 126 flights in 11 hours,” a senior airport official said.
The weatherman has predicted foggy weather for another three days. “There will be more fog. The airlines have been informed about the weather forecast. Exact Runway Visibility Range on both the new and old runways are being updated round the clock,” a senior met official said.