Planning to travel during the winter holiday season? Fog can derail your plans

Days after the IndiGo crisis, passengers should expect another round of disrupted air travel schedule, due to dense fog situation over several parts of the country likely to continue for next few days.    

On Thursday, a thick layer of fog wrapped across Delhi-NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Chandigarh and Punjab, the largest coverage of the season so far. Delhi airport said that flight operations were under the CAT III (low visibility operations) conditions in the morning hours, leading to flight delays.    

In the last two days, over 1,000 flights have been delayed and 200 cancelled at Delhi airport.

“IndiGo plans six departures per aircraft a day, which means a delay in one route can impact schedule of five other flights. So, any delay leads to a cascading effect. Similar impact can be seen for other airlines,” said an aviation expert.   

For several passengers who have faced harrowing time during the IndiGo meltdown early this month, there are concerns over impact of weather over their holiday plans.

“My flight to Mumbai departed after a delay of 4 hours and there was none at the airport giving any updates on the status. You are just on your own in such situation. Air travel is becoming worrisome these days,” said Rupin Arora, who boarded the flight from Delhi airport.    

During fog situation, even CAT III (low visibility operations) compliant flights get impacted during zero visibility situation. In a zero-visibility scenario, even the airport with instrument landing systems (ILS) has to stop operations.

The zero visibility in the aviation parlance means anything (even 1 meter below) the mandatory requirement of 75 meters for CAT III (B) landing and 125 meters for take-off. The ILS helps in landing but not taxing on the runway during fog.   

Airports in India are upgrading their instrument landing systems (ILS) to improve safety and efficiency as dense fog has been a recurring issue in the northern and northeasters regions of the country during winter months.

All airlines have issued advisory of possible flight delays and disruption due to the weather conditions for next several days. Airports Authority of Indian and Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) have also advised passengers to check flight status to plan their journey.

Air India in its advisory said that over the next few days, potential dense fog conditions resulting in poor visibility may impact flight operations at its primary hub in Delhi, and a few airports in northern and eastern India, with a cascading effect in some other cities across our network.

“To help plan your travel better, especially during the holiday season, may we request you to check your flight status before heading to the airport. In addition, our ‘FogCare’ initiative allows passengers, booked on flights that are likely to be affected during the fog window, to receive advance alerts on their registered phone numbers, with the option to change their flights without any extra payment, or seek a full refund on the bookings without any penalty,” said the airline.