New Delhi: Air services were affected on Saturday by dense fog that enveloped the IGI airport in New Delhi in the wee hours leading to diversion of three international flights and delay of over 50 others.
"Three international flights, two arriving here from Dubai and one from Abu Dhabi, were diverted to Jaipur and Ahmedabad, as the visibility was very poor due to dense fog," an airport official said.
The fog covered the airport at around 1.30 AM and by 2 AM runway visibility dropped to 200 metres, forcing the airport authorities to implement low visibility procedures (LVP). The runway visibility dropped to 100 metres and 150 metres for new and main runways at around 3.30 AM.
Around 50 flights, mostly scheduled to depart in the morning, were delayed by upto two hours due to fog and poor visibility.
The LVP was initiated at 2.09 AM and was lifted at 10.25 AM. During eight hours and 16 minutes of LVP period, a total of 224 flights operated using various categories of instrument landing system (ILS).
About 151 flights operated with CAT-I, 45 with CAT-II, 16 with CAT-III A and 12 with CAT-III B ILS, an airport official said.
Fog during this period of the year is quite unusual but high humidity level due to rains and low temperature led to formation of fog, a Met official said.
Delhi airport has witnessed a record 32 hours of dense fog (of CAT-III level) in February, unlike other years.
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