Fog hits IGI airport, around 50 flights affected

NEW DELHI: Dense fog today hit schedules of around 50 domestic and international flights at the IGI Airport here leading to suspension of air operations for about three hours and cancellation of several flights.

Over 20 flights were delayed by up to two to three hours, while as many, including three international ones, were diverted to Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bhopal as runway visibility dropped to less than 50 metres last night and early this morning, an airport official said.

Another 12 flights were rescheduled because of fog which started to descend over the airport from late last evening, reducing the general visibility to zero and runway visibility to less 50 metres, bringing air operations to a halt.

Though some flights landed using the CAT-III B instrument landing system till 2300 hours yesterday, runway visibility dropped to less than 50 metres thereafter forcing airport authorities to suspend flight operations for about three hours.

A number of international flights were disrupted due to fog and a Malaysian airlines flight to Kuala Lumpur, scheduled to take off at 11.10 pm yesterday, was cancelled after being delayed by over three hours with passengers on board.

A Jet Airways flights, coming from Kolkata, had to return after it failed to land.

Flight operations were badly hit on Saturday and Sunday after of the runway visual range measuring instrument at the Indira Gandhi International airport failed.