City blinded, IGI grounded

New Delhi: Low visibility conditions prevailed for more than 13 hours at the Indira Gandhi International Airport from Friday night to Saturday afternoon, making it the longest spell of fog so far this season, Met officials at the airport said.
The casualty: over 150 flights delayed, 30 cancelled, and 27 rescheduled.
On Saturday, dense fog had begun gathering by 9 pm, the weatherman said. Sunday is expected to be the worst so far this season so far as fog is concerned, the Met department said.
And as the wait for passengers grew longer, the Delhi International Airport Limited’s (DIAL) pride — CAT-III B-enabled third runway 29-11 — remained inactive for a major part during the fog. This was the third consecutive day that the new runway, said to be the most improvised runway in the advent of fog, remained ineffective during fog.
Runway 29-11 could not be used till 9 am on Saturday, and for more than 11 hours runway 28-10 handled all air traffic alone — for both arrival and departure. Low visibility procedures (LVP) were enforced at 10.30 pm Friday, when visibility began dipping.
Passengers, as has become the norm at the city airport during such times, had a nightmare almost all day, waiting for flights, or for their friends and relatives arriving in held-up flights.
Basu said he had not received any information about the flight delay when he left home, amid a blinding fog, at 5 on Saturday morning.
Incoming passengers had it equally bad, cooped up inside aircraft, often for hours.
04/01/09 ExpressIndia

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Categories: Airports Jan 2009