‘Trying to minimise impact of fog-related disruptions at Delhi airport’: Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia

The Ministry of Civil Aviation also issued a statement on X denying accusations that the Delhi airport had kept only one out of four runways operational. The post that had levied these accusations further alleged that the single runway that was operational was not CAT-III compliant and could not operate in foggy conditions, thus further causing delays.

The ministry denied the allegations saying, “This is not correct. All three Operational Runways at Delhi Airport including a CAT III runway were handling flight operations as per their capabilities yesterday (Sunday), however, with reduced capacity due to intense fog.”

As many as 508 outbound flights from the IGI airport were delayed while 87 were cancelled on Sunday, as per data from flight tracking service Flightradar24. As for inbound flights, 414 were delayed while 42 were cancelled. Several flights had to be diverted away from Delhi as well. The dense fog did hit operations on Monday as well, but the situation appears to have improved vis-à-vis early morning with the weather clearing up and the visibility improving.

“Yesterday, Delhi witnessed unprecedented fog wherein visibility fluctuated for several hours, and at times, dropped to zero between 5 AM to 9 AM. The authorities, therefore, were compelled to enforce a shut-down of operations for some time even on CAT III runways (CAT III runways cannot handle Zero-Visibility operations). The decision was taken keeping passenger safety in mind, which remains the foremost priority for all in the aviation ecosystem,” Scindia said in a post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).

“However, to mitigate the situation in the near future, following steps have been taken: a. @DelhiAirport has been asked to immediately expedite the operationalization of the CAT III-enabled 4th runway (in addition to the existing CAT III-enabled runway) to the satisfaction of the @DGCAIndia, in order to get approvals. b. The DGCA will issue an SOP for airlines on better communication and facilitation of passengers to minimise discomfort in view of flight cancellations & delays due to adverse weather,” the minister added.

The Delhi airport has four runways in all, of which two are Instrument Landing System (ILS) CAT IIIB-compliant, which means that they are equipped to handle aircraft in extremely low visibility. One of the two CAT IIIB-compliant runways is under maintenance for recarpeting, and, therefore, has not been in operation for weeks. It is worth noting that having CAT IIIB-compliant runways is not enough in low visibility. Airlines are also required to deploy aircraft equipped for ILS CAT IIIB and pilots trained to handle low-visibility operations. These factors could also have added to the woes.

With numerous flights delayed or cancelled on Sunday, the congestion build-up at the Delhi airport also led to long queues for departure, leading to passengers being stuck in aircraft for hours before take-off. Several incoming aircraft also bore the brunt of the congestion. For instance, an Air India aircraft operating a flight from Frankfurt to Delhi was able to land a little before 8 am on Sunday, but took almost two-and-a-half hours to find a parking bay. The incident involving physical assault on the IndiGo pilot also took place on board a plane whose departure was considerably delayed and passengers were made to wait inside the aircraft.

“It is my earnest request to all travellers to bear with us during this difficult period. All stakeholders are trying their best to minimize passenger inconvenience. Incidences of unruly behaviour amidst this are unacceptable, and will be dealt with strongly in line with the existing legal provisions. I would like to assure everyone that all stakeholders are working round the clock to minimise the fog-related impact,” Scindia said.

The disruption at the IGI airport and a few other airports in North India had a cascading effect on airline networks across the country. This happened primarily because airline networks and operations are complex with aircraft and crew performing multiple flights on different sectors throughout the day. Therefore, a long delay or cancellation of one flight can impact the subsequent flights that are to be operated by the particular plane and crew that day.

“Due to the low visibility and dense fog conditions across North India, IndiGo flight operations were impacted on Jan 14, 2024. This had a cascading effect on our operations throughout the day. Our staff kept passengers apprised of all delays and cancellations across airports and made every possible effort to facilitate the passengers. We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused to our passengers,” the country’s largest carrier IndiGo said in a statement on Sunday evening. Other Indian carriers also posted about network-wide disruptions on social media platforms.

(With inputs from Upasika Singhal)