Delhi Flight Status: 118 flights cancelled at Indira Gandhi Airport as fog disrupts ops

Flight operations at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport were disrupted on Tuesday, with a totl of 118 flights cancelled due to dense fog in the national capital.

Sixty arriving flights and 58 departing flights cancelled, while 16 flights were diverted, PTI reported citing the officials, indicating continued operational challenges. IGIA, operated by Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL), handles around 1,300 flight movements daily.

Data from flight tracking website Flightradar24, as cited by PTI, showed that 130 flights were delayed on Tuesday morning, with the average delay for departures estimated at around 28 minutes.


In a post on X, DIAL said that while flight operations were continuing, services that are not CAT III compliant could be impacted due to fog. CAT III compliance allows aircraft and pilots to operate in very low visibility conditions.

Against the backdrop of recurring fog-related disruptions, the civil aviation ministry said airlines have been instructed to strictly comply with passenger facilitation norms. These include timely updates on flight status, provision of meals to delayed passengers, rebooking or refunds in case of cancellations, no denial of boarding after timely check-in, baggage assistance and prompt grievance redressal.

Fog-related disruptions are common during winter months at Delhi airport, often leading to cascading delays and cancellations across domestic and international networks.

This comes as Delhi woke up to a blanket of dense fog early Tuesday, causing visibility to drop sharply in several areas, even as the air quality improved marginally to the ‘very poor’ category at 388.

A ‘yellow’ alert was issued for the city till 9 am in view of the fog by the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

Visibility at Safdarjung stood at 100 metres at 7.30 am, which improved to 200 metres by 8.30 am, while at Palam, moderate fog was observed with visibility registered around 300 metres at 8.30 am, it added.

The Air Quality Index (AQI) stood at 388 on Tuesday morning, marking a marginal improvement from Monday, when the city's air quality stood at the ‘severe’ category with a reading of 401.

Data from the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) Sameer app on Tuesday showed 16 air quality monitoring stations in the 'severe' category, while 21 stations recorded air quality in the 'very poor' category.

Jahangirpuri and Anand Vihar registered the worst air quality, with AQI levels touching 451, the data showed.

According to the CPCB classification, an AQI between 0 and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 to 100 'satisfactory', 101 to 200 'moderate', 201 to 300 'poor', 301 to 400 'very Poor', and 401 to 500 'severe'.