Delhi sees slight improvement in air and visibility, but flight disruptions continue

A slight shift in wind brought brief relief to Delhi and the National Capital Region on Tuesday, thinning the dense fog that had choked visibility and pushed air pollution into the severe zone. But while conditions improved on the ground, flight disruptions continued to ripple through the city’s main airport.

Delhi and the NCR saw marginal improvement in air quality and visibility as north-westerly surface winds scattered the fog that had prevailed a day earlier. Even so, the Delhi airport cautioned that flight disruptions were likely to continue, though operations were “steadily recovering”.

The Air Quality Index (AQI) on Tuesday eased to ‘very poor’ at 381, a day after touching the ‘severe’ category. Improved wind flow reduced fog intensity during the morning hours, leading to clearer conditions across parts of Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad and Gurugram. Despite the improvement, around eight monitoring stations across the city continued to record “severe” air quality.

Delhi had recorded its worst pollution levels of the winter on Sunday, when the AQI touched 461. On Monday, the index stood at 427.

Flight disruptions

Travellers passing through the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport were advised to brace for delays.

“Flight disruptions are steadily recovering, but disruptions may persist for certain departures and arrivals. For accurate and timely updates, please contact your airline directly,” the airport said in a statement.

Air India said it has “proactively cancelled select flights” scheduled for the day.

“To minimise inconvenience, we have activated our Fog Care programme, whereby passengers booked on affected or likely-to-be-affected flights are being notified in advance and automatically offered complimentary rescheduling or a full refund without penalty,” the airline said.

On Monday, low visibility amid a thick layer of toxic haze led to the cancellation of at least 228 flights in Delhi, including 131 departures and 97 arrivals, while five others were diverted. The airport witnessed chaotic scenes as passengers waited for hours for their luggage, evoking memories of the IndiGo disruption two weeks ago.

Fog leads to a collision in UP

The impact of poor visibility extended beyond the capital. Dense fog triggered a multi-vehicle pile-up on the Yamuna Expressway in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura on Monday night, causing a massive fire that left four people dead and more than 25 injured. The crash involved seven buses and three cars.

“There was a collision of three cars, after which seven buses collided with them, of which one is a roadway bus, and the other six are sleeper buses. All the buses had caught fire. The fire has now been brought under control,” police said.

(With inputs from Ashutosh Mishra)