Fog, traffic affect over 250 flights

NEW DELHI: Hundreds of flyers were either stranded at or couldn’t reach Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport on Thursday as a dense fog cover and a series of traffic restrictions put in place by the police played havoc.

Officials said that more than 250 incoming and departing flights were affected on Thursday for several hours.

Met officials, however, said prior information and better preparations helped them minimize the effect of fog on scheduled flight operations.

Of more than 250 flights impacted, close to 50 were delayed because airline crew couldn’t reach the airport on time as police tightened checking at border areas — following city-wide protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act — leading to heavy traffic jams on NH8 and MG Road. Many residents of Gurugram failed to catch their flight owing to the traffic snarls.

RK Jenamani, senior scientist and head of the IGI airport Met department said that the visibility dropped to as low as 100 metres and Runway Visual Range was recorded at 125 meters forcing low visibility procedures, including CAT III operations, being put in place.

Jenamani said the airport witnessed low visibility between 5am and 9am. “We had advanced information which helped us minimize the impact on flights,” he said.

An airport official said close to 50 flights got delayed because the crew and passengers failed to reach. Indigo had cancelled 19 flights on Thursday due to its crew getting stuck in traffic jams and other issues.

In a statement, IndiGo said, due to traffic restrictions and to accommodate passengers reaching late to the airport, the airline had rescheduled and curtailed its schedule in and out of Delhi of approximately 20 departures. “We are monitoring the situation and will take proactive measures if further cancellations are required. All passengers will be informed. However, due to impacted communication lines, passengers are requested to check our website. IndiGo has blocked hotel rooms near the airport to keep our crew ready to be deployed at short notice,” the statement reads.

Many passengers said they missed their flights because of traffic restrictions at Delhi-Haryana border in Gurugram.

Raman Krishnamoorthy, an IT professional from Manesar said his son missed his flight to Kolkata because they couldn’t reach Delhi airport on time.