Bad weather delays over 150 flights

Fog decided to play party pooper on Tuesday and many flights were affected at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, scuttling New Year plans of many passengers, reports Sidhartha Roy.

Fog decided to play party pooper on Tuesday and many flights were affected at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, scuttling New Year plans of many passengers.

The domestic airport was teeming with passengers destined to Goa for New Year celebrations. Ritika Srivastava, a passenger, cancelled her flight on Monday after it got delayed by hours and booked another ticket for Tuesday. “Today’s flight is delayed too but I hope I reach Goa because my other friends are already there,” she said.

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“My Jaipur-Delhi flight got cancelled due to fog and I reached here by road. Now my connecting flight to Kolkata is also delayed,” said Manish Thakur, a teacher at IIM Kolkata.

More than 150 flights were delayed, about 20 cancelled and 14 diverted after dense fog enveloped the airport at 10 pm on Monday and remained till 11.06 a.m. on Tuesday. While domestic flights were delayed by two to five hours, the worst affected were the international flights that were delayed by 10 to 17 hours.

“Visibility was very bad in the night and none of the flights could take off and by the time it improved, flying hours of the crew were exhausted,” said an airport source.

The met department forecasts fog for the coming days but the intensity and duration is expected to weaken. “IGIA would witness dense fog between 5 am and 9 am on Wednesday,” said R.K. Jenamani, Director-in-charge, IGIA met unit.

Meanwhile, police said three cars collided near IIC on Lodhi Road due to dense fog on Sunday night. One person was injured in the accident.