130 flights cancelled at Delhi airport; red alert issued for fog

Airports where visibility was zero in the early hours included Hisar, Ambala, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Jammu, Agra, Pathankot and Gwalior.

Thick fog across the region early on Monday led to a significant drop in the visibility – 50 metres at both Safdarjung and Palam stations – thereby impacting both flight and train operations in the Capital. Over 550 flights were delayed, at least 130 cancelled and eight diverted at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport on Monday.

The average delay of flights was 27 minutes. (Vipin Kumar/HT Photo)

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a red alert for Delhi for December 30, forecasting dense to very dense fog in many places, while a yellow alert is in place for moderate to dense fog on December 31.

Dense to very dense fog is also expected in Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and west Uttar Pradesh during the same period – continuing to disrupt travel plans with more delays and cancellations likely.

An airport official said that while the lowest visibility was 50 metres, the runway visual range (RVR) hovered between 125 and 175 metres between this period. For flights to land, the ideal visibility is 50 metres while 125 metres or higher visibility is required for the airplanes to take-off. This meant while departures were not on hold, operations were significantly disrupted till around 9am.

An airport official said at least 130 flights were cancelled, with eight flights diverted to nearby airports too. Data from the flight tracking website FlightRadar24 showed over 550 flights were delayed, with an average delay time of around 27 minutes. “This included flights impacted at other airports where visibility fell to zero metres,” the official said.

Airports where visibility was zero in the early hours included Hisar, Ambala, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Jammu, Agra, Pathankot and Gwalior.

Meteorological experts said that while the fog intensity may marginally reduce on Tuesday, dense fog is still likely during the early hours till January 1. “Wind speeds should increase a little on Tuesday so the fog intensity should be lower, but we are expecting dense fog on both Tuesday and Wednesday. On New Year’s eve, commuting could be tricky late at night,” said Mahesh Palawat, vice president at Skymet. “Warmer air rises and lifts the fog. During the day, wind speeds increase a little, so there is temporary relief from the fog, before it starts to intensify again in the evening,” he added.

“My flight from Delhi to Varanasi was initially scheduled at 7.35am, and got delayed to 10.40am. Later, I was told that the flight is cancelled and the next flight is only available tomorrow morning from Delhi to Lucknow. I’ll have to travel by roadways for an extra ten hours from Lucknow to Varanasi if I opt for tomorrow’s flight,” said 30-year-old Rajesh Kumar.

Olesya (44), who travelled from Azerbaijan with her 13-year-old daughter and husband for a two-week holiday in Goa, had a connecting flight from Delhi and faced similar challenges.

“There was no representative from Azerbaijan Airlines here at the IGI airport, so we contacted IndiGo for a ticket. Our flight with them got cancelled and then at the counter they asked us to pay for another ticket to Goa,” Olesya, waiting with her daughter at Terminal-2 for her husband to return after currency exchange, said.

At Terminal-1, a family of six had to delay their trip to Ayodhya due to sudden cancellation of flights. Scrolling through different travel agents’ numbers, 38-year-old Manoj Kumar Verma said a SpiceJet staff at the ticket counter had told him to get tickets booked for tomorrow morning. But anxious by the possibility of another cancellation due to bad weather, Kumar decided to book a car.

“We had already booked the return train tickets for December 30 for around ₹10,000. Now, that’ll also go to waste since we haven’t even reached there. But we didn’t want to take another flight since there is no guarantee that it will not be cancelled due to bad weather the other day,” Kumar said.

Meanwhile, train operations were also impacted in the capital. Northern Railways data showed over 100 trains were delayed in the Delhi Division. The delay time ranged from 15 minutes to 5 hours.

“We had dense fog in Delhi at Palam for around seven hours, between 2 am and 9 am. At 2:30 am, visibility fell to 50 metres at Palam and remained so till 8 am before increasing marginally to 100 metres. At Safdarjung, visibility remained at 50 metres for a similar period – till around 9 am before gradually improving,” said RK Jenamani, senior scientist at IMD, stating even by 10:30 am, visibility was only around 500 metres at Palam and 300 metres at Safdarjung.

“Visibility improved and the fog weakened briefly during the day as winds picked up – between 5 to 8 km/hr and we had sunshine in some parts of the city. Other pockets still had shallow fog in NCR,” RK Jenamani, senior scientist at IMD, said.