Fog delays over 100 flights at IGI

Dense fog badly disrupted flight operations at the IGI airport for the fourth consecutive day,throwing schedules of over 100 domestic and international flights.

Dense fog badly disrupted flight operations at the IGI airport for the fourth consecutive day on Sunday,throwing schedules of over 100 domestic and international flights haywire and causing inconvenience scores of air travellers.

Eight six international and two domestic flights were diverted to Jaipur,Mumbai and Ahmedabad,26 domestic flights were cancelled and 22 others had to be rescheduled as the airport remained enveloped by fog for more than 15 hours,an airport official said.

About 50 other domestic and international flights were delayed by up to four to five hours.

Thick fog began to envelop the airport last night and visibility dropped to less than 800 metres forcing the airport authorities to implement the low visibility procedures at around 9.53 pm last night.

The runway visibility continue to deteriorate and dipped to a low of 100 metres in the morning affecting the schedules of all morning flights,causing inconvenience to the flyers.

Low visibility procedures were implemented till 12.28 pm this noon,during which about 170 flights operated using the instrument landing system.

Around 52 flights operated using CAT-I ILS,29 with CAT-II,26 with CAT-III A and 63 flights operated with CAT-III B ILS,the official said.

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According to sources,flights of Jet Airways and Jetlite were worst hit as only a few aircraft of these airlines could take-off in the morning.

The airlines8217; flight to Singapore,Kathmandu and London were delayed.

Since visibility continued to remained low for most part of the day,most airlines were finding it difficult to maintain their schedules.

A large number of passengers,who had their morning flights,were seen at the waiting lounges and also at the space near the ticket booking counters of the airlines at the airport.

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About 350 flights have been delayed this season due to poor visibility at the airport.

The delays have happened despite strict guidelines from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to the airlines to deploy their CAT-III B aircraft and put on roster a CAT-III B trained pilot to operate flights in mornings during the fog season.

Taking into account the large number of delays due to fog,the DGCA had issued notices to the airlines.