Severe fog played havoc with flight timings in the city on Sunday, resulting in cancellation of 38 flights, diversion of 42 and delays of at least 150 flights till Sunday evening, even as the government lowered the take-off minima for aircraft in order to ease air traffic congestion and reduce passenger woes.
Fog disrupted rail traffic and also slowed down road traffic in the city on Saturday night and early on Sunday. A collision between a truck and an SUV in the early hours of Sunday on the Ring Road flyover near Rajghat also resulted in the death of the 40-year-old driver of the SUV and injuries to four others. It was also reportedly the coldest day of this season with the maximum temperature dropping to 18.8 degrees Celsius while the minimum was at seven degrees Celsius.
The bad news is that similar weather conditions may persist on Monday or may deteriorate further. Top civil aviation ministry sources cited the weather forecast and warned that dense fog could result in severe flight disruptions on Sunday night and Monday morning as well. In order to ease passenger woes without compromising on air safety, the government announced the lowering of the take-off minima for aircraft from 175 metres to 150 metres for big aircraft and from 150 metres to 125 metres for smaller aircraft.
As per rules, landings can take place with the help of the CAT-IIIB instrumentation landing system if visibility is at least 50 metres and smaller aircraft can take off now if visibility is at least 125 metres. Ministry officials made it clear that if the visibility were below these parameters, there would be no way in which flights would be allowed to operate. Thousands of stranded passengers waited desperately for their flights to take off and those whose flights were cancelled tried their best to get tickets on other flights.
Of the 38 cancelled flights till Sunday evening, 23 were domestic while the rest were international. Of the 42 diversions from IGI Airport, 28 were domestic flights. The low-visibility procedure was put into effect at about 7.40 pm on Saturday and lasted till about 1 pm on Sunday. The cascading effect of flight delays, however, continued throughout the day. DIAL officials said that as per the weather forecast of the Indian Meteorological Department, visibility at Delhi airport was expected to go down to CAT III conditions from 10 pm on Sunday to 9 am on Monday.
Worried over the disruptions, civil aviation secretary Nasim Zaidi presided over a fog preparedness review meeting at Delhi airport on Sunday evening in which the ministry made it clear to airlines that passengers are not to be asked to board aircraft if the visibility is below the minimum of 125 metres for smaller aircraft. The government is keen to ensure that passengers are not made to wait for hours inside stationary aircraft in the hope that the weather may suddenly clear up. Mr Zaidi made it clear that safety would be of paramount concern. He said that the sudden dense fog had taken authorities “by surprise” on Saturday.
The civil aviation secretary also said that 161 flights were operated on Sunday under the CAT-IIIB ILS when visibility was between 50 metres to 200 metres. He said there were a total of 300 aircraft in the country which were CAT-IIIB-compliant and 2,100 pilots who are CAT-IIIB-trained. The government has ordered that aircraft which are not CATIIIB-compliant will not be allowed to land at Delhi before 10 am during the fog season.
The ministry also ordered DIAL — the operators of IGI Airport — to install 1,200 more seats at the integrated Terminal 3 from where all international flights and all domestic flights of full-service carriers operate. This has been ordered so since extremely low visibility may ensure long waiting hours for passengers. There are already 5,000 seats at T-3 and another 1,600 seats at Terminal 1-D, from where domestic flights of most low-cost carriers operate.
Airlines have also been directed to promptly inform passengers through emails and SMS about the latest update on flight timings. As many as 75 flight information display screens will be put up at the boarding area and another 75 in other areas of the airport. Procedures have also been streamlined for take-off of aircraft once visibility improves.
News agency reports on Sunday said that 51 trains were delayed by anywhere between one to 27 hours because of the fog. The Gujjar agitation in Bayana in Rajasthan also contributed to the rail traffic disruptions. Among the trains delayed were the Jansadharan Express, Katihar Express, Purshottam Express, Brahmaputra Mail and the AP Express. The Gujarat Sampark Kranti was delayed by 27 hours. One train was rescheduled while two were cancelled. “Our railway officers and administrative staff are manning railway stations round-the-clock,” a railway official was quoted by agency reports as saying.