Flights delayed or cancelled, many forced to wait for nearly six hours

With the dip in mercury, the number of stranded passengers due to delay and cancellation of flights on Monday rose sharply at the Indira Gandhi international airport (IGIA). Rajat Arora reports.

With the dip in mercury, the number of stranded passengers due to delay and cancellation of flights on Monday rose sharply at the Indira Gandhi international airport (IGIA).

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Passengers were not only hit by the delay in the arrival and departure timings of the flight, but also by the non-availability of real-time information. Many got to know about their flights being delayed only when they reached the airport.

“I am coming from Bhopal and had to catch a flight to Jaipur. My Spicejet flight was scheduled to take off at 1:40pm. I got to know about the three-hour delay only when I reached the airport. In these three hours, I would have been near Jaipur if I had taken the road. Now, I have to wait here at the terminal,” said Ratan Kumar, a harried passenger.

Many flights had to hover around the airport for some time before they could land as the visibility got very low. “My Jet Airways flight from Bangalore had to land here at 10:25am but it landed here at 12:20pm. It hovered around for sometime before it could land,” said Sudarshan, a passenger.

Many had to wait for longer than six hours. Flyers to smaller centres like Lucknow and Aurangabad were severely hit as their flights were delayed by around seven hours. Jet Airways flight to Lucknow, which had to take off at 7:50am, was rescheduled to take off at 1:50pm.

Several flights to cities like Gorakhpur and Allahabad were also cancelled on Monday morning due to dense fog.

“The fog phenomena has just started and the flights are already getting delayed for two-three hours. My Air India flight to Delhi from Bangalore got delayed by a couple of hours. I don’t know what will happen when the dense fog envelopes the Capital again,” said Haneef Dawood, another passenger.