Chaos At Delhi Airport With Over 150 Flights Delayed And Cancelled Due To Thick Fog

With the national capital grappling with severe cold and recording the lowest minimum temperature of the winter season at?3.3 degrees, along with low visibility caused by dense fog, authorities at Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) took preemptive measures.

AFP

Over 150 flights delayed

As many as 168 flights have been delayed and 84 flights cancelled at the Delhi airport today, showed flight tracker website flightradar24 this morning, with an average delay of about an hour.?Delhi airport also issued a dense fog alert, impacting air travel with thousands of passengers patiently waiting for their flights.

But the delays ran up to several hours in some cases with a passenger claiming he had to wait 13 hours for his flight to Goa.Major airlines like IndiGo, SpiceJet and Vistara said bad weather conditions in Delhi and Kolkata may impact flights. An early morning Delhi-Kolkata flight was diverted to Hyderabad, Vistara said.

Zero visibility at IGI Airport

Visibility at Indira Gandhi International Airport was nearly zero between 4 am and 10 am, resulting in no flight departures and only 15 arrivals during that period, PTI report further said citing sources. Under normal weather conditions, the airport manages around 60 departures and arrivals per hour.??

Meanwhile, eighteen trains experienced delays as a result of fog, causing disruptions in the train schedule as well.

Schools are also set to open in the city today after a two-week winter break though timings have been restricted due to severe cold.

AFP

IMD issued an alert

As bone-chilling temperatures persist, India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued an alert predicting that a dense fog is likely to endure in isolated pockets of northwest India for the next three to four days.

The season's first cold wave day was on Friday with the temperature dipping to 3.9 degrees Celsius. Saturday's was coldest night at 3 degrees.

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