Flight disruptions expected in Delhi on Monday amid dense fog — Status of IndiGo, Air India, SpiceJet operations
Delhi airport authorities also advised passengers to check their flight status through their respective airlines, or check the airport website, given expected disruptions due to a dense fog forecast.
The Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) in Delhi warned of potential flight disruptions on Monday morning, saying operations would be affected due to dense fog.
"Based on the India Meteorological Department forecast for tomorrow morning, visibility will be low and dense fog is expected," the Delhi airport authorities said, adding that flight operations could be affected.
Airport authorities also advised passengers to check their flight status through their respective airlines, or check the airport website.
Full service carrier Air India also announced a hit to flight operations on Monday over northern India, including Delhi, citing dense fog forecast.
Budget carrier SpiceJet too announced that all flights at the Delhi airport were likely to get affected due to fog and asked passengers to check the status of their flights and plan accordingly.
IndiGo, which had seen a period of mass cancellations earlier in December, announced that schedules would be impacted due to dense fog and the reduced visibility, saying that some flights "may experience delays" while "cancellations remain a possibility".
IndiGo said that operations in and out of Dehradun and Guwahati would be particularly impacted, but did not specify Delhi at the time of writing this.
Akasa Air also did not issue any specific travel advisory at the the time of writing this.
That said, it is possible that IndiGo and Akasa Air will issue an update later on Sunday night, given the IMD's dense fog forecast for Monday.
Chaos on Sunday
Monday's expected disruptions come after chaos on Sunday, when IndiGo cancelled at least 57 flights impacting major destinations due to weather conditions.
Air India on Sunday also issued a travel advisory citing fog across northern India.
Dense fog continues to hamper flight operations almost on a daily basis, and this is expected to continue up until February, with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) declaring the period between 10 December and 10 Feb as fog season this winter.
During this period, the DGCA's CATIII-B guidelines kick in, which require airlines to roster pilots trained for low visibility situations, as well as deploy aircraft that can operate in such conditions. Under CATIII-B, operations are permitted at a runway visual range of 50 metres.