Fog delays keep flyers stranded at IGI

NEW DELHI: Flyers were in for a harrowing time with at least 242 flights getting affected due to dense fog at IGI Airport on Monday. While many passengers kept waiting for the fog to clear up, some had to return disappointed.
Visibility started dropping below 800 metres at IGI Airport around 3.15am on Monday. By 4am, it was just 200m. But the worst of the season was yet to come-between 5.30am and 9.30am, visibility reduced to nearly zero and the runway 29/11 had to be shut while the runway 28/10 stayed operational under CAT IIIB low visibility procedure (LVP).Fog finally started lifting around 10 in the morning but LVP operations could be ended only at 2.50pm. A total of 140 flights were operated under LVP.
While no flight was diverted, 232 flights were delayed while 10 were cancelled. However, the airline operator, DIAL, said no flight was cancelled due to low visibility in Delhi. "Four flights could not take off due to airline operational issues with DIAL and two were cancelled at destinations-Kullu, Chandigarh and Jammu. Of the three cancellations at arrival, one was cancelled by SpiceJet due to operational issues and the rest due to bad weather in Kullu and Chandigarh," said a DIAL spokesperson.
The cancellation of the 2.30pm IndiGo flight to Jammu put many flyers in trouble. "I don't know anybody in Delhi. I came from Agra and was going home. There was no communication from the airline's side. The next flight is on Tuesday at 9am. But I am afraid even that will get cancelled. I am stuck here and don't know what to do," said Shivani Kohl, a homemaker.
Another passenger, Yogita Bhatt, a student, was travelling from Kochi to Chandigarh via Delhi. "My IndiGo flight landed in Delhi around 10.30am. I was scheduled to take a SpiceJet flight around 12.55pm but they had been postponing it every hour. I've been waiting in the cafeteria since morning. After this experience, I'm not sure if I would want to travel to north India during winter," she said.
Yogita was, however, lucky to get a seat in an evening flight while many others were stranded at the airport indefinitely. At least 17 passengers had even missed their connecting flight because of the delayed arrival of their first flight.
Dr Pallav Singh and his wife Nidhi, residents of Lucknow, were returning from Ahmedabad after a long vacation. They missed the connecting flight from Delhi as their AirIndia flight from Ahmedabad was delayed by two hours due to fog. "Our connecting flight was also AirIndia's. But now they are not ready to accommodate us in the next flight." The airline, Singh added, has said they can be accommodated only if seats are available.
Many others had to cancel professional plans. Thomas Mathews, a training consultant from Delhi, had a flight to Raigarh at 9.30am. It got rescheduled to 2.30pm and he missed a training session.