Poor visibility in Delhi hits Lohegaon flight operations

PUNE: The poor visibility in the national capital had a cascading effect on flight operations from the city airport on Tuesday, triggering hassles for passengers.
As many as 19 Delhi flights, including arrival and departure, of different airlines — mainly IndiGo — were delayed by half-an-hour to close to five hours between 3am and 6pm. A spokesperson of IndiGo said the main reason for the delays was the fog in Delhi.

“The foggy condition led to poor visibility in Delhi, adversely affecting our network in Pune as well as other centres. There was also air traffic congestion at Delhi airport because of the fog. The situation is now returning to normal,” the spokesperson told TOI.

The visibility near the Delhi airport dropped to 50 metres on Tuesday morning, delaying flight operations. A source said as many as 45 flights were delayed in the morning hours, while five others were diverted. He said the poor visibility in Delhi had resulted in all departures being stalled from around 7am to 9:15am.

Anurag, travelling on a Delhi-Pune IndiGo flight, scheduled to take off from the national capital at 8.20am, was flummoxed because his flight was delayed by almost five hours. “I had a plan of meeting my cousin in Pune for a few hours before he travelled to Nagpur. My flight was supposed to land in Pune around 10.20am. But it took off from Delhi only at 1.15pm and landed in Pune around 3pm. By then, my cousin had left for Nagpur,” Anurag said.

Another IndiGo flight from Delhi landed in Nagpur at 2pm instead of 10.20am.

A Jet Airways flight, slated to take off from Pune for Delhi around 10.30am, was delayed by over two hours. Similarly, a Pune-Delhi GoAir flight around the same time was delayed by more than two hours. A SpiceJet flight to Delhi was delayed by an hour-and-a-half.

An official of the Pune airport confirmed that flights from and to Pune from different centres, especially Delhi, were affected on Tuesday. “During the winter, passengers need to take precaution and check their flight schedule time and again,” the official said.

Vistara, in its travel update, said, “Delayed departures and arrivals this (Tuesday) morning at Delhi due to fog, which is below minima even for CAT III and LVTO-qualified crew. Consequential delays likely across network.”

Jet Airways, too, shared a notification stating, “Due to adverse weather conditions (fog) in Delhi, some of our flights have been affected.” IndiGo, too, had a similar message as a travel advisory. “Due to expected poor visibility at Delhi, Amritsar and Chandigarh airports tomorrow (Wednesday), flight departures and arrivals may be impacted. Do check your flight status before you leave for the airport,” the message said.