Fog has fliers tweak travel plans

More than 30 flights were delayed at Calcutta airport by four to five hours on an average on Thursday.
With fog-related delays feared to continue throughout winter, a lot of passengers — especially those scheduled to take connecting international flights from Delhi and Mumbai — are altering travel plans. “The fog fright has prompted at least 10 per cent of the passengers who had booked tickets on morning flights to opt for day or evening flights,” said Anil Punjabi, the chairman (east) of the Travel Agents’ Federation of India.
An Air India official confirmed that there was a sudden surge in demand for evening flights.
“Fog delays cannot be averted during winter. Altering travel plans can only reduce the hardship,” said a Jet Airways official. “The ripple effect of morning delays can be felt till the afternoon or even evening.”
This, despite the technological intervention to fight fog. The Category II Instrumental Landing System was installed at the airport this year to help planes operate in fog, but it cannot function when the minimum visibility drops below 350 metre.
29/12/07 The Telegraph

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Categories: Airports Dec 2007