Fog delays flights,Met predicts worse ahead

According to the Met department officials,dense fog is likely to continue and increase over a period of time.

“We did not witness dense fog conditions this winter season. We did not face CAT III fog conditions at the IGI till today when the visibility was reported low by pilots and some flights were delayed,” said an airport official.

The Runway Visibility Range (RVR) reduced to approximately 800 metre at 6 am but the condition improved an hour later. The CAT I condition was applied due to low RVR but there were no diversions apart from delays,as it was peak hours for the flights.

In the past,the IGI Airport has also witnessed CAT IIIB situation (50 metre visibility). An official said the first spell of dense fog is expected to arrive in a day or two.

According to airport and MET department officials,the unavailability of CAT III trained pilots is going to affect flight operations as the fog situation is expected to worsen.

Last year,the IGI Airport witnessed dense fog for almost 23 days last year,which was reported to be the maximum in the last five years.

Airport officials,however,claim things have changed this year and they are more prepared to dodge the fog. Last season,during December and January airport witnessed 147 hours of dense fog and suspended flight operations thrice.

“With the implementation of Low Visibility Procedures (LVP),when the visibility reduces to 800 metre the airside road from Terminal 2 via Terminal 1A will be closed. All work in the airside will be stopped,” said an official.

In case of dense fog,there are plans that domestic flights would be diverted to nearby airports like Jaipur and Lucknow,while international flights will be moved to Karachi in Pakistan. Domestic airlines are reportedly going to suffer more due to fog,as most of the domestic airlines have not trained their pilots for CAT-III. Pilots of international aircraft are trained in the system as they encounter more such conditions in European countries,the official said.