Flights delayed, foggier days ahead

New Delhi: Delhi's IGI Airport is witnessing a fresh spell of fog as visibility dropped to 500 m and runway visual range (RVR) to 650 m during the morning hours. Low visibility procedures (LVP) had to be implemented for about 40 minutes due to which there were some delays during the day. The Met department warns of more dense fog in the coming three days.
According to airport sources, visibility had started falling in the wee hours of Monday and safeguard procedures had to be put in place at 7.26 am. With visibility falling lower, low visibility procedures were in place between 8.03 am and 8.42 am. The worst conditions prevailed between 7.30 am and 9 am. During LVP, 23 flights operated, including one international flight. The new runway was finally put to use as all departures during LVP took place from here. The first flight to depart from this runway during low visibility was a Spice Jet flight from Delhi to Bangalore. A total of 13 departures took place during the LVP.
"Landings during LVP took place from the main runway, while departures took place from the new runway. With the surface movement radar commissioned finally, the airport functioned much more smoothly during Monday morning's fog," said an airport official.
On Monday, the civil aviation ministry called a meeting with airline CEOs, where secretary M Nambiar asked airlines to focus on their preparedness for the fog period. DGCA chief Naseem Zaidi also asked them to ensure that they had their CAT-III trained pilots rostered for flights to and from Delhi.
16/12/08 Times of India

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Categories: Airports Dec 2008