New visibility rules for fog-hit runways in Delhi

With foggy runways in the national capital throwing flight schedule haywire, India’s civil aviation department on Sunday said new rules would allow movement of aircraft.

The Civil Aviation Secretary said large aircraft would be allowed movement in lower visibility condition under its new rules.

“We have taken special steps to lower the low visibility from 175 to 150 for Category III (large aircraft) flights,” said Civil Aviation Secretary S N A Zaidi.

He said the visibility rules were lowered from 150 to 125 metres for next category but some aircraft would be allowed to land only after 10 am.

No flights will operate in below 50 metres visibility, he said.

He said the decision was taken after discussing the stakeholders and safety standards would be maintained.

On fogged out Sunday, 38 flight were cancelled and 28 domestic and 14 international flights were diverted.

Poor runway visibility caused by dense fog in the national capital threw flight schedule haywire since morning.

The Delhi airport had to be shut for an hour in the morning as flights from Mumbai and other cities apart from many international flights were disrupted as the passengers were greatly inconvenienced.

The general visibility at runways were less than 50 metres.

The carriers had to cancel flights to and from Kolkata, Lucknow, Raipur, Jaipur, Kullu, Mumbai, Leh, Amritsar, Patna, Chandigarh, Goa and Srinagar due to the fog.

Air India had to reschedule its flights to Chicago, New York and Toronto.

The Mumbai airport also had to deal with a passenger protest owing to the disruptions since Saturday night.

There was slogan shouting in the airport which was later controlled by the paramilitary forces.

MET office said the fogs would continue for the coming days.