Dense morning fog hits 50 flights at IGI airport

New Delhi: Air travellers had a harrowing time at IGI airport for the second day with dense fog upsetting flight schedules. According to sources, the schedule of over 50 flights was affected after dense fog enveloped the airport on Sunday morning leading to cancellation of two domestic flights and diversion of seven others.
"As a result of dense fog on Saturday night and Sunday morning, seven flights, including an international, were diverted, two flights were cancelled and three international flights rescheduled," an airport official said. Fog started to descend on the airport from Saturday evening and by 8.30pm the visibility had become very poor.
Officials said by 11.30pm, the visibility had dropped to less than 50m while the runway visibility range came down to 150m.
For about three hours there was no improvement in the situation. During this period seven flights — five domestic , one international and one cargo — were diverted to Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Mumbai.
Poor visibility and inclement weather forced Air India to reschedule three international flights. Air India flight (AI 101) to New York, scheduled to depart at 12.45am, was rescheduled to 9am, Delhi-Chicago from 1.30am to 10.30am and Delhi-Toronto from 1.45 am to 9.45 am.
According to Delhi International Airport (P) Ltd (DIAL), low visibility procedures (LVP) were placed from 8.31pm on Saturday and lasted over 12 hours. LVP was implemented on the new runway at 8.31pm and at 10.38pm on the main runway. It was lifted at 8.35am on the new runway and at 6.40am on the main runway.
Times of India
10/01/10 Times of India

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Categories: Airports Jan 2011