Flying Blues in Delhi

Domestic and International Airlines, every year get disrupted by dense fog at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. This year too, they are maintaining consistency which is causing inconvenience to thousands of passengers.
Passengers, while flying to or flying from Delhi should keep following things in mind to avoid inconvenience:


1. Tell your Travel Agent to update your mobile contact in your reservations which will help both the agents and the airlines to keep you informed of the latest flight schedules of the flight you are about to take.


2. Keep airline’s airport number and 24 hour assistance number handy with you


3. Check and confirm timing of the flight before leaving your home or office for the airport.

4. Subscribe to SMS service of the airline which will also help you to keep you updated

5. Maintain discipline at airports which will help airport authorities serve you better

Only Indian Airlines, like every year, was able to land its planes in the fog using CAT III-B ILS. Though all airlines except SpiceJet have CAT III-B-trained pilots now, only Kingfisher could manage that operation and that too for a take-off, which is easier than landing.


The authorities, as usual, said they were helpless. “We have issued guidelines but DGCA doesn’t run the airlines. Although the airlines have sufficient number of CAT III-B trained pilots, they have not been able to plan their operations,” said DGCA Kanu Gohain. “They have to use their pilots optimally.”


Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel had recently said slots of airlines are not being cancelled because it would affect the passengers.An IndiGo spokesperson said the visibility was too low for CAT III-B operations and a Kingfisher spokesperson gave the same reason for the airline’s failure to operate more flights in the dense fog. The fog, however, did not seem to deter Indian Airlines from operating six flights on time.