Indigo cancels 118 flights due to bad weather, operational reasons

IndiGo on Monday cancelled 118 flights across its network due to bad weather and operational reasons, according to its website. Of these, six flight services were axed due to operational reasons, while the rest were cancelled due to bad weather conditions at various airports.

Flight services were cancelled at Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Cochin, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Dehradun, Indore, Patna and Bhopal, among others, as per the IndiGo website.

The airline, in a travel advisory at 11.20 am, said, “Foggy conditions remain in place across Delhi and several airports in northern India, with visibility yet to improve fully. As a result, the earlier impact on flight movements is likely to extend into the noon hours, and some delays may continue.”

In the advisory posted on X, however, IndiGo did not say it had cancelled 80 flights on Monday. “We assure you that flight departures and arrivals are being sequenced to ensure steady and orderly movement, while keeping your journey and comfort in mind,” the airline added in the advisory.

IndiGo, which cancelled thousands of flights, including 1,600 on a particular day, early this month due to the court-mandated stricter flight duty and rest period norms for the pilots, and left lakhs of passengers stranded at multiple airports, has been cancelling flights in good numbers since the start of the fog season on December 10. On December 25, the airline had cancelled 67 flights to multiple airports, citing weather conditions, while on Saturday it cancelled another 57 flights from several airports, citing bad weather.

The aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), has announced the period between December 10 and February 10 next year as the official fog window this winter. The Delhi airport, in a passenger advisory issued at 1400 hours, Stated: “Flight operations at Delhi Airport are running smoothly as runway visibility has improved. However, some flight departures or arrivals for certain destinations may be impacted.

For the latest flight schedules, please contact your airline or visit the official airport website.” The airport in a morning advisory had stated that “due to persistent dense fog, flight operations continue to remain under CAT III conditions, which may result in flight delays”. As part of the DGCA fog operations (CAT-IIIB) norms, airlines must mandatorily roster pilots trained to operate in low-visibility conditions and deploy a CAT-IIIB-compliant aircraft fleet for such operations.

Category-III is an advanced navigation system that empowers an aircraft to land under foggy conditions. Category-III-A is a precision instrument approach and landing that enables a plane to land with a runway visual range (RVR) of 200 metres, while Category-III-B helps in landing with an RVR of under 50 metres.