Fog delays over 130 flights at IGI in New Delhi

The first fog of winter 2013 disrupted flight operations at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi for over two hours on Monday. With runway visibility dropping below 50 metres, the minimum required for CAT-III B-compliant planes to land, over 130 flights were delayed, of which nine flights, including an international flight from Amman, were diverted. According to officials at the New Delhi Air Traffic Control, fog thickened at around 7 am and till 9.30 am no planes were allowed to take off or land at the airport.

“Some flights were diverted to Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Lucknow after they hovered over Delhi for some time. But since they were out of fuel, they had to land at other airports,” said the official from the New Delhi’s ATC. While flights were allowed to land after 9.30 am when visibility on the main runway increased above 50 meters, take-offs took more time as the minimum required visibility is anywhere between 125 to 150 meters.

Both of Delhi’s runways are CAT III-B compliant allowing aircraft to land using the instrument landing system if visibility is above 50 meters. To facilitate passengers, Delhi International Airport Ltd introduced the Delhi Airport Collaborative Decision Making.

The system tries to improve air traffic flow by improving perdicatbility of events and relaying the information to the passengers.

A passenger on the Delhi-Kolkata flight on Air India, that faced a major delay on late Sunday night said, “There was no clear information given as to why there is a delay, when it will take off and what arrangements will be made for us if it gets cancelled. The situation was pathetic and we were all left to wait with just some coupons given for food and coffee at a restaurant.”