Himalaya Harbinger, Uttarakhand Bureau
With a sharp drop in air quality in the national capital this morning, and the onset of winter reducing early morning visibility in several parts of India, the Delhi airport and the SpiceJet airlines issued separate advisories for passengers.
The Delhi airport informed passengers about low visibility procedures in progress at the airport, and requested them to contact their concerned airline to get updated flight information.
A dense layer of fog covered the national capital on Saturday morning, reducing visibility. The SpiceJet Airlines also posted about low visibility affecting flights in Bengaluru, Ayodhya, Gorakhpur, Varanasi and others.
SpiceJet Airlines posted on their X account that flights might be affected due to poor visibility. It said that due to poor visibility in Bengaluru, all departures or arrivals might be affected. In another post, it cited poor visibility in Ayodhya, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Amritsar, and Dharbanga, which might affect the flight operations on 13 December.
Earlier HT reported that Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport is all set to minimise disruptions in flight operations due to low visibility, deploying advanced AI systems.
The Delhi International Airport Limited said that the Airport Predictive Operations Centre will integrate real-time data and predictive weather models.
IMD says shallow fog expected in the morning
The India Meteorological Department noted that the sky in Delhi is expected to remain partly cloudy for the next 48 hours from December 13. It also said that Mist or haze is expected on Saturday night, and shallow to moderate fog can be seen during the morning hours of December 14 and 15.
The maximum temperature today is likely to fall between 23-25 degrees Celsius, while the minimum temperature will likely be around 8 degrees Celsius.
Meanwhile, Delhi’s air quality witnessed a sharp drop on Saturday morning with AQI falling in the ‘very poor category’. AQI in major areas in the national capital crossed the 400 mark.
This comes amid the flight disruptions in IndiGo airlines inching towards normalcy. On Friday, IndiGo said that most passengers have been given refunds and the remaining will receive them shortly.
In a major move, the aviation regulator DGCA suspended four flight operations inspectors in connection with the recent disruptions.
