Flight chaos continues: IndiGo cancels over 50 flights due to 'forecasted bad weather'; Air India issues advisory

NEW DELHI: Flight travel across India remain disrupted for another day on Monday with several flights cancelled and many cancellations set for tuesday as well.As per the IndiGo's cancelled flight data, 59 flights, scheduled for December 30 have now been cancelled.

116 flights were cancelled on Monday, majorly due to bad weather while 5 were due to operational reasons.Earlier in the day, ministry of civil aviation had also issued an advisory warning of possible delays. "Due to fog conditions across parts of Northern India, flight operations at select airports may be impacted, leading to possible delays. Passengers are advised to stay updated through official airline communication channels, allow additional time for airport arrival and check-in procedures, and plan their travel accordingly," it had said.

Air India also issued its advisory during the day saying, "Weather forecast continues to indicate dense fog for tomorrow morning with significantly reduced visibility at Delhi and parts of northern India. This will affect flight schedules to and from Delhi with cascading effects likely across our network. We are closely monitoring the situation and have taken proactive steps to minimise disruptions . In the event of unexpected delays, diversions or cancellations resulting from fog, please rest assured that our ground teams are available at key touchpoints in the airports to extend assistance to you.

We understand how frustrating such disruption to travel plans can be and are making every possible effort to minimise the inconvenience," it said, while explaining its "FogCare initiate" to help the passengers.

Under DGCA fog operations (CAT-IIIB) norms, airlines are required to mandatorily roster pilots trained for low-visibility operations and deploy aircraft that are compliant with CAT-IIIB standards. Category-III refers to an advanced instrument landing system that enables aircraft to operate in foggy conditions. Category-III-A is a precision approach and landing system that allows operations with a runway visual range (RVR) of up to 200 metres, while Category-III-B permits landings when the RVR drops below 50 metres.