Though Thursday provided some respite for air travellers, with a remarkable reduction in the intensity and duration of fog at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, it was yet another day of waiting for passengers whose flights were scheduled for departure in the early hours of Friday. At least 70 flights were delayed on Friday due to low visibility, one was diverted, five rescheduled and 13 others were cancelled.

According to IGI officials, low visibility procedure (LVP) was implemented at 11 pm on Thursday, but only runway 28 was used for both departures and arrivals till 6 am on Friday. Officials cited some problem with the Instrument Landing System (ILS) of the new runway 29, which also experiences denser fog because of large open spaces around it.

LVP lasted for more than 9 hours, during which 95 flights (including 46 domestic and 49 international) operated. LVP was terminated at 7.55 am on Friday when RVR on runway 28 was 1,800 m and 1,200 m on runway 29.

At least 70 flights were delayed on Friday on account of low-visibility conditions. One Jet Airways flight from Singapore was diverted to Ahmedabad, five others were rescheduled and 13 had to be cancelled, including G8-341 to Hyderabad, IT-302 to Mumbai, 6E -101 to Bangalore, S2-101 to Mumbai and 9W-3319 to Lucknow.

“G8-451 from Delhi to Mumbai, 6E-201 from Delhi to Imphal, GF-130 Delhi to Bahrain, GF-131and EK C 513 from Delhi to Dubai were rescheduled due to bad weather at the Delhi Airport,” an airport official said.

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