Flights thrown out of gear as dense fog engulfs northern India

New Delhi: Even as people across the country struggle with biting cold, the ongoing winter is causing problems aplenty for airlines as well. As “bad weather” and foggy conditions disrupted flight movements on Monday, several airlines including IndiGo and SpiceJet were forced to issue travel advisories for their passengers.

Air India has warned that fog over large parts of northern and eastern and the accompanying poor visibility may affect its operations on Tuesday with arrivals and departures overshooting the scheduled time slots.

“Due to expected bad weather (poor visibility) in Delhi (DEL), Amritsar (ATQ), Jammu (IXJ), Ayodhya (AYJ), Gorakhpur (GOP), Varanasi (VNS), Darbhanga (DBR), Patna (PAT), Guwahati (GAU), and Bagdogra (IXB), all departures/arrivals and their consequential flights might get affected. Passengers are requested to keep a check on their flight status,” Air India informed in a statement on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).

IndiGo, which suffered a huge setback due to the mass cancellation crisis earlier this month, said in its advisory that fog is expected to develop during the late-night hours and extend into the morning, with periods of reduced visibility across several airports in the region.

“In view of the forecast, flight movements may see some impact, with some delays possible as operations adjust to the prevailing conditions. We remain vigilant and continue to monitor the weather closely to ensure your journey progresses as smoothly as possible,” the Indigo statement added.

“Reduced visibility may also affect road traffic during the early hours and advices its customers to plan their journey to the airport with some additional time in hand. 
Our teams are continuing to support customers at the airport and are in close coordination with authorities to resume smoother operations as soon as conditions permit. Please keep checking your flight status for the latest information,” the Indigo post on X read.

Indigo was forced to cancel around 80 flights on Monday. While roughly half of these flights were scheduled to take off from Delhi, its operations in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Cochin, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Dehradun, Indore, Patna and Bhopal were also affected.

Dense fog and resultant poor visibility has derailed airline services in several cities across the country including Delhi, Amritsar, Jammu, Ayodhya, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Darbhanga, Patna, Guwahati, and Bagdogra.