Runway closure and poor visibility delays over 200 flights

My Delhibengaluru flight was scheduled to depart at 3:10 pm and we boarded at 3:30 pm. It is after we boarded, we were told that flight is delayed by two hours.

A PASSENGER

NEW DELHI: Chaos prevailed at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) for the second consecutive day on Wednesday with the closure of one runway and poor visibility due to smog delaying 200 flights.

While those coming to Delhi airport had to wait in the air, those leaving were made to sit in the aircraft for 2-3 hours.

“My Delhi-bengaluru flight was scheduled to depart at 3:10 pm and we boarded the flight at 3:30 pm. It is after we boarded, we were told that flight is delayed by two hours. It is a sheer waste of time to wait in the plane. The airline should communicate in advance,” said a passenger, who does not wish to be named.

Over 200 flights were delayed on Wednesday. An airline official said because of the runway closure, the queue is long and even the ready aircraft had to wait for one to three hours before they could move for departure.

Airlines have cancelled some of the flights as capacity of Delhi airport has been reduced by 30%. At some sectors, because of less flight in slot, the fares have also soared.

Delhi airport handles 67 flights in an hour but during three days — November 7, 8 and 9, when the runway will remain closed — its capacity has been reduced to 45 flights in an hour

Runway 11-29 of closed for maintenance and will be operational from 7am on November 10. The other two runways 10-28 and 09-27 were expected to accommodate the load of runway 11-29 but 9-27 is not equipped to handle low visibility operations and as a result entire load has shifted to one runway.