BENGALURU: Fog continues to play spoiler at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA), upsetting the travel schedule of many fliers. Due to poor visibility at the airport, 15 flights which were to depart early Wednesday, were delayed while one incoming flight reached the airport an hour late. 

An airport weather station official said foggy conditions are expected to prevail on Thursday morning too, but to a reduced extent.  

According to an official communication from BIAL, “A visibility standby was declared at 4.08am and this was withdrawn at 8.04am. A total of 15 flights suffered departure delays while one flight had an arrival delay.”

Asked if operations were stopped during the four-hour standby period, a spokesperson said, “A limited visibility alert was declared, but operations continued.” 

According to an AirAsia spokesperson, four of its flights had a delayed takeoff due to bad weather in the morning: Bengaluru-Guwahati (i5 1952); Bengaluru-Chennai (i5 2389); Bengaluru-Hyderabad (i5 1528) and Bengaluru-Jaipur (i5 1720).

A Jet Airways spokesperson said that the Coimbatore-Bengaluru flight reached KIA an hour late. “Since we knew about the weather conditions in Bengaluru, we ensured the flight started late from Coimbatore airport.”  

An airport meteorological official said that the fog was dense between 5am and 6.30am. “Whenever visibility conditions are lower than 1,000 metres, a fog is said to have occurred. During these 90 minutes, visibility was around 200 metres. It gradually lifted after that and the conditions became normal at 7.11 am when visibility improved,” he said.