SpiceJet warns of flight delays in 6 cities as dense fog envelopes North India

SpiceJet on Wednesday issued an advisory, saying its flights may get affected due to dense fog resulting in poor visibility. It said the flights may get delayed in Amritsar, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Dharamshala, Jaipur (JAI), and Kolkata. "(28th Dec'23): Due to expected poor visibility in Amritsar(ATQ), Varanasi (VNS), Gorakhpur (GOP), Dharamshala (DHM), Jaipur (JAI), and Kolkata (CCU) all departures/arrivals and their consequential flights may get affected," the airline said.

North India has been witnessing very dense fog in the past few days, impacting traffic in states like Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, West Madhya Pradesh, and West Rajasthan. "Dense to very dense fog is likely to continue over Northwest India during next 3-4 days," said the weather forecasting agency in its latest update on Wednesday.

In the last 24 hours, dense to very dense fog was reported in most parts of Punjab, many parts of Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, some parts of Uttar Pradesh, northwest Rajasthan, and northwest Madhya Pradesh. Poor visibility caused flight diversions and delays at several airports including Delhi and Hyderabad.

Earlier this morning, Vistara informed that its flight UK873 from Mumbai to Hyderabad had been diverted to Bangalore due to bad weather at the Hyderabad airport. 

On Tuesday, 12 flights were diverted at the Delhi airport and scores of flights delayed due to bad weather. Out of them, 11 flights were diverted to Jaipur and 1 to Lucknow due to dense fog, an official said. As per information available on the Delhi airport website, more than 30 flights were delayed in the morning.

In a post on X, the Delhi International Airport Ltd gave a fog alert at around 0730 hrs saying that while landing and takeoffs continue at the Delhi airport, flights that are not CAT III compliant may get affected. CAT III pertains to operating flights when the visibility is quite low. "Passengers are requested to contact the airline concerned for updated flight information. Any inconvenience caused is deeply regretted," the DIAL said.