The HAL Airport, which operates around 300 plus flights every day, saw its runway being clogged with no flights being able to take-off or land due to poor visibility during morning hours.

The dense blanket of fog over Bangalore skies on January 14 and 18 saw major disruption of flight service between 5 am and 8.30 am, which is said be the peak time as far as flight operations are concerned.

Sources told Deccan Herald that of the 300 plus flights, around 75 to 80 take-off and land during this period. “Between 6.45 am and 8.30 am the airport handles heavy traffic. Around 40 flights arrive and as many as 20 to 25 flights depart to various domestic destinations. Besides, there are connecting flights which make it a busy period,” said airport sources.

On January 14 no flight could take-off or land between 5.30 and 8.30 am. Similarly, on January 18, again chaos reigned at the airport as flight service was disrupted for over three hours resulting in several delays and diversions.

On these two days, Kingfisher, Jet Airways, Fly Deccan, Indigo and other airlines reported delays of 30 minutes to two hours.

Sources said that many of the International flights too did not get ground clearance due to the backlog. Airline and Airport Authority of India (AAI) Officials pointed out that the flights could not land or take-off from the airport because the visibility had dropped below the Category-1 ILS (Instrument Landing System) level.

Sources said that for flight to take-off and land the minimum requirement at this level is 1,200 meters and for the flights that makes a landing on the tarmac from the Koramangala side requires an even higher visibility with at least 2,800 meters.

“Flights are never allowed to operate under these circumstances when the visibility drops below the Category-1 ILS. However, flights can operate even when there is a visibility of 100 meters if the airport has a Category-3 ILS runway,” said an airline official. Such a system is at present available only at the Delhi Airport.