Flight schedules go haywire once again

Flight schedules were once again disrupted at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Sunday. The Met department predicts worse fog conditions for Monday.

Flight schedules were once again disrupted at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Sunday. The Met department predicts worse fog conditions for Monday.

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Nearly 100 flights were delayed, 17 were cancelled, 13 had to be rescheduled and ten were diverted after visibility started dropping at the airport from 8 pm on Saturday. Flights were delayed by up to three hours.

Many airlines cancelled or merged their flights. Some airlines combined their early morning flights because there were fewer passengers and also because they didn’t want flights to be affected by fog.

Visibility at the airport started dropping from 8 pm on Saturday. Dense fog conditions remained till 12.08 pm on Sunday. “Though fog remained at the airport in the last 24 hours, its intensity and duration were reduced substantially,” said R.K. Jenamani, Director-in-charge, IGIA Met unit.

Runway blues

Once again, the much-hyped new runway 29 was not used and all flights operated from runway 28.

“Despite some recent technical glitches, the new runway can easily handle flights during dense fog. However, untrained pilots mean that it remains idle during CAT IIIB conditions,” said a senior air traffic control official.