Fog plays spoilsport, disrupting flights during peak festive travel time

There was no Christmas cheer for passengers travelling out of Bengaluru , Delhi, Kolkata  and Hyderabad due to dense fog and poor weather conditions. At least 30 flights were affected at these airports, amid peak festive travel time, either diverted or cancelled. Flights at Shimla, Chandigarh  and other regions in the North-East were also affected due to the inclement weather and reduced visibility.

With delays in departures, airports became horrifically crowded and chaotic. Visuals of stranded passengers at airports flooded social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter). “It is such a terrible day for tourists in India today. Airports are super crowded. Roads everywhere are jammed with traffic of people leaving the cities for holidays. Hundreds of weddings in hotels have added to the traffic and service levels are at all time low! Across so many cities in India,” Lovleen Arun, founder of luxury travel company Panache World, posted on the platform.

Diversions & cancellations

According to sources, Vistara had two diversions, whereas SpiceJet had three diversions and four cancellations. Air India had 11 delayed flights, seven IndiGo flights at Hyderabad airport were diverted to nearby cities while 12 of its departures were cancelled. Hyderabad in totality witnessed a diversion of 11 flights whereas Delhi Airport witnessed diversion of eight aircraft.

The Delhi airport issued an advisory for passengers saying, “While landing and take-offs continue at Delhi airport, flights that are not CAT III compliant may get affected. Passengers are requested to contact the airline concerned for updated flight information. Any inconvenience caused is deeply regretted.” CAT III is an anti-fog landing system initiated during poor visibility.

According to the Airports Authority of India’s data, in December 2022, Indian airports handled 221.09 thousand aircraft movements and 30.92 million passengers. In November this year, Indian airports handled 226.08 thousand aircraft movements and crossed the 31.31 million passengers mark.

Given that this was the long weekend, the air traffic numbers were expected to be higher than usual.  EaseMyTrip’s Co-Founder, Rikant Pittie, said, “This festival season, there’s an approximately 30 per cent increase in advance bookings. People are locking in plans early, anticipating celebrations and reunions during the Christmas and New Year’s long weekend.”

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted very dense fog in several parts of the country till January 2. This means  travellers , who may be heading out during the New Year eve long weekend will also face challenges.