6 flights cancelled, 60 delayed at IGI

NEW DELHI: Six flights were cancelled and over 60 delayed, including 40 domestic and 26 international flights, due to dense fog at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport causing inconvenience to passengers on Tuesday.

According to Indian Meteorological department, general visibility improved to 200 metres at IGI as compared to zero metre in the past two days. It, however, forecast that the fog would continue for some more days.

While this was so, trains coming to the capital were also hit due to fog. As many as 64 trains were delayed, 21 cancelled, while 24 more were rescheduled, according the Northern Railways spokesperson.

The runway visual range (RVR) was between 800 to 1,000 metres early Tuesday, indicating an improvement as runway visual range was in the range of 50 to 100 metres in the last two days.

For a take-off a flight requires a minimum RVR of 125 metres and landings can take place during a minimum RVR of 50 metres, an Indira Gandhi International Airport official said.

“Operations this morning are normal thus far as visibility at DEL is within minimums, but may change at short notice,” tweeted Vistara Airlines The airline is also allowing passengers to change or cancel their flight bookings without any penalty.

Hundreds of passengers were stranded at the Delhi airport as flight operations were completely suspended due to the dense fog.

T1-D and T3 and the boarding gates were jam packed with passengers, many sitting on the floor and staircases and waiting for word about their delayed flights.