Fog grounds 105 flights, 450+ delayed
NEW DELHI: As many as 105 flights were cancelled and over 450 services delayed due to low-visibility conditions amid fog at the Delhi airport on Sunday.
An official said at least 55 arrivals and 50 departures were cancelled at the airport. According to the latest information available on flight tracking website Flightradar24.com, more than 450 flights were delayed and the average delay time was around 36 minutes for departures at the airport.
In a post on X in the evening, Delhi airport operator DIAL said operations are running smoothly. DIAL operates the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), the country’s largest airport that generally handles around 1,300 flights daily.
Flight operations have been disrupted for the past many days in Delhi and other airports due to dense fog.
The air quality in the national capital was recorded in the ‘very poor’ category on Sunday morning with an overall Air Quality Index (AQI) reading of 377, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
According to the CPCB’s Sameer app, 16 out of the 40 monitoring stations in the city reported air quality in the ‘severe’ category, while the remaining recorded ‘very poor’ levels. An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 to 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 to 200 ‘moderate’, 201 to 300 ‘poor’, 301 to 400 ‘very poor’, and 401 to 500 ‘severe’, according to the CPCB classification.
Among the key weather monitoring stations, Palam recorded its lowest visibility at 300 metres due to moderate fog between 10 pm and 12.30 am IST, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The visibility improved to 600 metres in shallow fog but fell back to 350 metres, with east-southeasterly winds blowing at a speed of 7 kilometres per hour, it said.
At Safdarjung, the visibility dropped to its lowest at 200 metres in moderate fog between 1.30 am and 2.30 am IST. It gradually improved to 500 metres in shallow fog by 5.30 am, the IMD said.
The minimum temperature settled at 9.4 degrees Celsius, 1.3 degrees above the season’s average whereas the maximum temperature settled at 18.1 degrees Celsius.
The humidity was recorded at 100 per cent at 5.30 pm, as per IMD.
The weather department has forecast moderate fog on Monday with maximum and minimum temperature expected to hover around 21 degrees Celsius and 9 degrees Celsius, respectively.
