Delhi airport, IndiGo, Air India issue advisories warning more flight disruptions due to fog, poor visibility

Delhi flight cancellations: Delhi airport warns that flight disruptions may continue despite improving conditions after dense fog led to mass cancellations. Airlines advise passengers to check flight status for updates.

Flight operations at airports in Delhi and other parts of north India have been hit due to poor visibility because of dense fog (Photo: ANI).

Delhi flight disruptions: The Delhi airport has issued a fresh advisory on flight disruptions, warning that while flight operations had been normalising after hundreds of cancellations due to fog, disruptions are likely to continue.

The advisory issued at 6:06 AM on Tuesday, read: “Flight operations are steadily recovering, but disruptions may persist for certain departures and arrivals. For accurate and timely updates, please contact your airline directly. Our personnel are available across terminals to assist passengers and provide necessary support.”

As per the Early Warning System for Delhi, Safdarjung airport recorded the lowest visibility of zero metre from 1:30 AM to 2:30 AM on December 15. This continued to prevail till 8:30 AM and improved to 400 m at 10:00 AM. “Palam airport recorded the lowest visibility 50 m from 6 AM to 9 AM IST.” On Tuesday, the general visibility marginally improved to 800 m, as per the Delhi Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS).

What airlines said

Air India said: “Dense fog enveloping Delhi and parts of Northern India early this morning caused flight disruptions across airlines, leading to significant air traffic congestion at the Delhi Airport and parking bay constraints, among multiple other challenges. Regrettably, several Air India flights had to be delayed and/or cancelled, which had a cascading, network-wide impact on our flight schedules as a result. While such unavoidable conditions are beyond airline control, our teams are working around the clock to assist affected guests with rebookings or full refunds if their flights were cancelled.”

IndiGo Airlines, which has been plagued by thousands of flight cancellations due to operational reasons, too, said: “As winter sets in, early mornings across Northern India can bring fog that may occasionally slow down flight movements… Please be assured that our teams are well prepared and closely monitoring weather conditions. Wherever possible, we are making thoughtful adjustments on the ground to reduce inconvenience and ensure any waiting time is as comfortable as possible.”

Travel Advisory

As winter sets in, early mornings across Northern India can bring fog that may occasionally slow down flight movements. We wanted to share this gentle heads-up in advance, so you can plan with ease and check your flight status before heading to the airport…

— IndiGo (@IndiGo6E) December 15, 2025

IndiGo flyers are advised to check their flight status here before heading to the airport.

Akasa Air said on Monday that flights across its network had been impacted due to the severe weather conditions in Northern India. SpiceJet, too, said that its flights in North India and UP had been hit due to poor visibility.

Delhi CAT-3 airport

Most flights hit by the poor visibility were of Air India. Social media users vented on X about the prolonged disruption period. Some pointed questioned that why flights at Delhi airport were being cancelled despite it being equipped with CAT-3 (Category III) Instrument Landing Systems (ILS). The system enables flights to land safely in extremely low visibility conditions, crucial during dense fog.

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Last year, the DGCA issued regulations which mandate the operators to ensure that all flight crew members should be qualified for take-off, instrument approaches and operations to the lowest CAT-I/II/III minima as applicable. There are six CAT-3 airports in India: Delhi, Lucknow, Jaipur, Amritsar, Bengaluru and Kolkata.