Delhi braves chill, fog hits flights

While Delhiites braved chilly weather conditions with mercury dipping further to 4.5 degree Celsius on Wednesday, dense fog in the early hours affected road, rail and air traffic badly.

According to Met officials, the visibility in the city dropped below 50 metres around 8:30 am. While vehicles moved slowly, several flights were delayed and train movement was severely affected.

The minimum temperature was two degrees below normal, while the maximum was recorded at 17.7 degrees, three degrees below normal.

Fog grounds flights
With heavy fog descending on both the major runways at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in the wee hours of Thursday, Low Visibility Procedure was implemented at both Runway 28 and 29 by 2 am as the Runway Visibility Range (RVR) fell below 50 metres. While over 70 flights were delayed, fog forced cancellation of 15 flights, including 11 due to similar weather conditions at other destinations, in the capital.

“The operation was affected between 3 and 10 am. Flight operation continued intermittently as the CAT-III B complaint flights could land despite low visibility. The LVP was lifted around 1 pm as the RVR suddenly improved and reached over 100 around 12 pm, which gradually improved later,” a DIAL spokesperson said.

Two Jet Airways flights from Dubai and Doha and two Air India flights from Muscat and Abu Dhabi and a Royal Jordan flight from Amman were diverted to nearby airports. Four domestic flights to Lucknow, Kochi, Bangalore and Chandigarh were cancelled. The airport has been witnessing fog for the last three days, due to which flight schedule has been badly affected.