'Dense Fog & Low Visibility': Indigo Releases Statement After Persistent Flight Delay Across North India

Sunday morning in Delhi started with a thick blanket of fog engulfing the city causing diversion of at least 10 flights, nearly 100 delayed, and some cancelled at the airport. Flights at Delhi Airport were seen lined up for over 3 hours to get the parking space.

A Mumbai to Guwahati IndiGo flight — 6E 5319 — made an emergency landing in Bangladesh’s Dhaka due to bad weather conditions and low visibility at Guwahati airport.

Owing to the persistent delay, Indigo Airlines has released a  statement asserting that due to low visibility and dense fog conditions across North India flight operations were impacted on January 14 (today).

“This had a cascading effect on our operations throughout the day. Our staff kept passengers apprised of all delays and cancellations across airports and made every possible effort to facilitate the passengers. We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused to our passengers.” read the statement.

Nearly 100 flights, including overseas services, were delayed and some of the flights were cancelled due to the bad weather.  Among the impacted flights, Air India’s flight AI 185 from the national capital to Vancouver which was to depart early in the morning was rescheduled.

Passengers had to wait inside the aircraft for many hours before they deboarded. After boarding was complete, the flight, which was to depart a little past 5 am could not take off due to the dense fog.

An airline official said to news agency, PTI that after waiting for a few hours, it was decided to reschedule the departure of the flight as the crew would have also breached the flight duty timing requirements.

Now, the flight is expected to leave at around 11.30 pm. The passengers have been provided accommodation, the official added.

“Passengers are requested to contact the airline concerned for updated flight information,” it said in a post on X. A thick layer of fog shrouded Delhi and other parts of North India on Sunday, with visibility levels plunging to zero meters at several places.

The country’s largest airline Indigo, in a post on X, said that due to prevailing weather challenges in Northern India, flight schedules may experience interruptions.

Last month, airport sources had said that a total of 58 flights were diverted due to bad weather between 0000 hours of December 25 to 0600 hours of December 28.

Recently, aviation regulator DGCA issued show cause notices to Air India and SpiceJet for not deploying pilots trained to operate in low visibility conditions, following diversions of various flights amid dense fog at the Delhi airport in late December.

(with PTI inputs)