Daily operations at Delhi Airport were affected on Monday due to dense fog and poor visibility, causing delays in arrivals and departures of flights, according to Delhi airport authorities and domestic airlines.
Three flights were diverted from Delhi airport on Monday morning due to heavy fog, an official said.
Flights are operating at the airport under CAT III B conditions, which means that the runway visual range (RVR) is between 50 metres and 175 metres.
Giving an update on flight operations at 7 am, the airport official said there was dense fog but no "flight has been cancelled" yet.
IndiGo and Spicejet have also alerted passengers about the delays in airlines’ operations and asked them to stay in touch with airlines’ staff.
“Due to bad weather, flight operations at Delhi Airport are affected,” said the operators on Twitter, adding that low visibility procedures are in progress.
The Met department on Sunday said that dense fog may be seen in the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) on Monday morning.
Update issued at 0600 hours : #Fog #FogAlert #DelhiAirport pic.twitter.com/MA0QdqDDVo
— Delhi Airport (@DelhiAirport) December 30, 2019
IndiGo, in an early morning notice, informed passengers that its flights are affected in Delhi and asked them to reschedule their travel plans accordingly.
#WeatherUpdate Due to bad weather at Delhi (DEL), all departures/arrivals and their consequential flights might get affected. Passengers are requested to keep a check on their flight status via https://t.co/u9dvEZRAK7.
— SpiceJet (@flyspicejet) December 29, 2019
#6ETravelAdvisory: Due to poor visibility in #Delhi, our flights are impacted. Do keep a track of your flight status at https://t.co/TQCzzy2a2s. For rescheduling/cancellation, please visit Plan B https://t.co/Oq5OqwbyNF. You may also chat with us at https://t.co/tBjQsmj0MT.
— IndiGo (@IndiGo6E) December 30, 2019
On Sunday as well, due to the cold wave, there was dense fog in the morning at Palam which reduced visibility to 150 meters, according to MeT department. At Safdarjung, there was moderate fog with a visibility of 600 meters.
However, a change in wind direction brought slight relief for Delhi, which has been reeling under the longest cold spell of the last 22 years due to a change in wind direction.
Since December 14, the national capital has been experiencing "severe cold days" with the average minimum temperature on Sunday morning being recorded at 3.4 degrees Celsius, four notches below what is considered normal for this time of the year.
The minimum temperature in various parts of Delhi varied with 2.5 degrees Celsius being recorded at Ayanagar, 2.8 degrees Celsius at Lodhi Road, 3.2 degrees Celsius at Palam and 3.6 degrees Celsius at Safdarjung.
-with inputs from agencies
First Published: IST