Delhi fog continues to affect flights in city

MUMBAI: Flights at Mumbai airport were delayed due to fog in the national capital on Friday morning. Passengers had to suffer a long wait, in most cases for two hours, before they could board flights. Airport officials said though the fog lifted by noon, the ripple effect of delays continued till late afternoon.
Due to major delays in incoming flights, schedules of other flights that were to be operated on the same aircraft, were also thrown out of gear.While Delhi was the most-affected sector, flights to Bangalore, Chennai, Jaipur and Kolkata were also affected due to the cascading effect.
A Mumbai International Airport Pvt Ltd spokesperson said the average delay in arrivals from Delhi was two hours, 40 minutes. The average delay for departures from Mumbai went up to one hour, 30 minutes. MIAL officials said an Indigo flight from Delhi to Mumbai was cancelled.
"Many arrivals were delayed by three hours and departures by two to three hours. A Jet Airways Mumbai-Delhi flight departed almost two hours late. All airlines were affected alike. Passengers were stuck at the airport terminal waiting for flights. In case of departures, most delays were because aircraft arrived late from Delhi,'' an airport official said. "Even when the fog lifted, traffic was jammed for a few hours due to a huge backlog,'' he added.
Friday was also the first day of the runway closure at the airport. It was shut at 9am and reopened at 5pm. Officials said though the impact of the closure on flight delays was minimal, the backlog could have been cleared more quickly had the main runway been operational.