Fog descends at IGI; 10 flights cancelled

After a two day's respite, dense fog once again enveloped the Indira Gandhi International airport early this morning disrupting flight operations with 10 flights being cancelled and 20 others delayed.

After a two day's respite, dense fog once again enveloped the Indira Gandhi International airport early this morning disrupting flight operations with 10 flights being cancelled and 20 others delayed.

HT Image

Some international flights arriving here were also diverted to other destinations, sources at the airport said.

The fog suddenly descended on the airport at around 10 pm. Last night with general visibility dropping to less than 50 metres and runway visibility (RVR) dipping to 75 metres. This led to implementation of low visibility procedures, the sources said.

Since most of the international flights from Delhi airport operate at night, their operations were affected, they said, adding over 20 international and domestic flights were delayed by over two hours.

The long duration of fog also hampered the flight schedule of domestic airlines. About 10 early morning flights to Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Mumbai, Kochi, Jaipur, Goa, Bhopal and Indore were cancelled.

The situation began to improve after 5.30 am. This morning when the visibility improved to 150 metres and the RVR to 1,100 metres.

The visibility further improved to 450 meters and RVR 1,400 metres at 7.30 am, the sources added.

The airport has been witnessing dense fog almost every alternate day since December 29 last year. The fog had led to delay of over 800 flights and cancellations of over 100 during first fortnight of this month.