“There will be war rooms at airports…”: Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said regarding flight delays
Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday announced a six-point action plan to deal with the problems caused by fog in domestic and international commercial flight operations. These days, hundreds of flights are delayed or canceled due to fog. In a post on X, Scindia said, “New SOPs or standard operating procedures have been issued to airlines to minimize inconvenience to passengers.”
Yesterday, Delhi witnessed unprecedented fog wherein visibility fluctuated for several hours, and at times, dropped to zero between 5 AM to 9 AM.
— Jyotiraditya M. Scindia (@JM_Scindia) January 15, 2024
The authorities, therefore, were compelled to enforce a shut-down of operations for some time even on CAT III runways (CAT III…
The Union Minister said that the government has daily reports of airports of all six metro cities, as well as reports of implementation of the instructions of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
Scindia said, “‘War rooms’ will be set up by airports and airline operators at all six metro airports to immediately address any issues regarding passenger inconvenience and also ensure availability of adequate CISF forces at all times.” Will.”
He said that Runway 29L of Delhi airport has been made CAT III operational, so that it can handle take-offs and departures even during low visibility scenarios. Also said that Runway 10/28 – with CAT III status will also be made operational as soon as possible.
Delay in flight operations due to fog
There is a lot of anger and tension among the passengers regarding the delay due to fog. Passengers had to stand in queues on the runway for hours to sit inside the plane. It flared up further on Sunday night when an IndiGo passenger attacked the captain of a Delhi-Goa flight, which was delayed by more than 10 hours.
Fog has seriously affected road and rail as well as air traffic during the morning in the last 15 days in the North and North-Eastern region of the country. Five flights were diverted at Delhi airport on Monday, while more than 100 flights were delayed.
Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has said that all stakeholders are working round the clock to reduce fog-related disruptions. Airport operator DIAL has been instructed to expedite the operation of the CAT-3 capable fourth runway. When a runway is CAT-3 capable, flight operations can take place even in low visibility conditions.
Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has advised people to avoid unnecessary travel and be careful while driving, with visibility levels reaching zero meters at many places due to dense fog.
Dense to very dense fog conditions likely to persist in North India
IMD said that there is a possibility of dense to very dense fog conditions in North India for the next three days. The department said that cold day to severe cold day conditions will prevail in the northern plains for the next two days. According to IMD, “Cold wave to severe cold wave conditions are expected to continue for three days in the north-western areas of the country.”
