New Delhi: With hundreds of flights getting cancelled or delayed daily due to dense fog in the national Capital, Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia sought to calm down angry passengers who are having a harrowing time.
Scindia assured travellers on Monday that all stakeholders at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport are doing their best to minimise passenger inconvenience.
“I would like to assure everyone that all stakeholders are working round the clock to minimise the fog-related impact,” Scindia wrote on X.
On Sunday, visibility was zero at Delhi airport, further hampering flight operations which were already marred by cancellations and delays over the last few days.
The situation improved slight on Monday, but over 100 flights from Delhi were either cancelled or delayed by several hours.
There are two CAT III-enabled runways at Delhi airport, equipped to handle low visibility up to 50 metres. One of these, runway 28/10, has been closed for re-carpeting since mid-September, according to ANI. The second one was shut on Sunday for a few hours. Hence during that period, the Delhi airport had no operational CAT III-enabled runway.
It added to the chaos and confusion at the airport, as passengers complained they were not informed about the reason for delay or cancellation.
Scindia said the decision to shut the runway was made keeping passengers’ safety in mind, which remains the “foremost priority for all in the aviation ecosystem”.
“Yesterday, Delhi witnessed unprecedented fog wherein visibility fluctuated for several hours, and at times, dropped to zero between 5 AM to 9 AM. The authorities, therefore, were compelled to enforce a shut-down of operations for some time even on CAT III runways (CAT III runways cannot handle Zero-Visibility operations),” Scindia posted.
The minister further said that Delhi airport has been asked to speed up the operationalisation of a fourth runway – which is CAT III-enabled — to DGCA’s standards so that it gets the green light.
“The DGCA will issue an SOP for airlines on better communication and facilitation of passengers to minimise discomfort in view of flight cancellations and delays due to adverse weather,” Scindia tweeted.
The minister also said incidents of of unruly behaviour during the chaos were “unacceptable”. He added that such incidents will be handled “strongly” as per existing legal provisions.
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