Fog after 6am hits flights to city all day

Chennai: Poor visibility at Chennai airport, caused by foggy conditions, disrupted operations and affected the schedule of nearly 50 arriving and departing flights on Saturday morning. The cascading effect continued into the late afternoon.
Flights of British Airways from London, Oman Air from Muscat, and Singapore Airlines from Singapore were diverted to Hyderabad as fog engulfed the airside, reducing visibility to 300 metres.A Qatar Air flight from Doha was diverted to Bengaluru, while a Sri Lankan Airlines plane from Colombo and an Indigo aircraft from Kuala Lumpur were diverted to Coimbatore. Domestic flights from Pune and Port Blair were diverted to Tirupati.
Additionally, the arrival of an Air Asia flight from Kuala Lumpur was delayed by two hours, while an Indigo flight from Singapore landed an hour later than scheduled. Similarly, an Indigo flight from Abu Dhabi and an Emirates flight from Dubai were delayed by 45 minutes, and an Etihad flight from Abu Dhabi was delayed by 90 minutes.
Airport authorities said that runway visibility, which was at 1,000 metres until 6am, had reduced to 600 metres at 7am. Between 7.30am and 8.30am, the visibility further dropped to 200 metres, making it extremely difficult for pilots to land and take off from the runway.
Due to the delays in arriving flights, the departure schedule was also disrupted. Although runway visibility improved to 1,000 metres after 9am, the cascading effect of the disruption lasted until late afternoon. The Oman Air flight, which was diverted to Hyderabad, returnedaround 12.30 pm, but the departure from Chennai to Muscat was rescheduled to Sunday at 1.30am. Passengers who reached the airport were provided with hotel accommodation. Meanwhile, an Indigo flight between Kochi and Chennai was cancelled due to disruptions in flight operations.
Airport authorities said this was the first time they faced disruptions in operations due to fog in Feb. "Usually, only during Bhogi and Diwali celebrations do we face difficulty due to smoke from firecrackers and burning waste. Also, it is strange that visibility is clear until 6 am and then the fog forms. We have sought the met dept's advice for the upcoming days," sais an official. On Feb 4, flight operations were also disrupted at Chennai due to fog.