Dense fog delays 300 flights, leads to cancellation of 8 from Delhi airport

New Delhi: Delhiites on Monday witnessed dense fog for the second consecutive day with minimum temperature settling at 5.7 degree Celcius.

Over 300 flights were delayed and eight cancelled as dense fog severely hampered visibility at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport in Delhi on Monday morning.

Nearly all flights arriving into and departing from Delhi were affected. About 265 domestic flights and 67 international flights were delayed.

There have been eight cancellations so far, all of which were domestic flights.

No take-offs could take place between 7:30 am to 9:30 am, according to an airport official. This was because runway visual range (RVR) was between 100-125 metres, while aircraft require more than 125 metres RVR for take off.

While planes could land in Delhi, they were delayed because of unavailability of parking bays, which were occupied by aircraft waiting to take-off, the official said.

There were no diversions to nearby airports due to fog, according to the official.

Vistara's Chief Strategy and Commercial Officer, Sanjiv Kapoor, took to Twitter to describe the mess at Delhi airport on Monday morning.

"All departures were held up due to fog, arrivals not getting gates as all occupied by aircraft waiting to depart. Departures finally starting to happen now. Consequential delays expected through the day across the network," Kapoor tweeted.

The maximum temperature recorded on Monday was 23.9 degrees Celcius with a humidity of 100 percentage and nil rainfall, a MeT official said.

According to MeT department, the national capital will witness dense fog on Tuesday too and it would become moderate the next day.