Fog at Bengaluru Airport: 15 flights cancelled, 140 flight schedules affected

The temperature in Bengaluru might have soared by a few degrees, but Sunday was the worst fog-affected day of the season at the Kempegowda International Airport.

For close to four hours - between 4:44 am to 8:25 am, no flight took off or landed at the airport due to low visibility, leading to multiple delays and cancellations. It affected 140 flight schedules.

According to airport authorities, 15 flights were cancelled, of which seven were supposed to land in Bengaluru and eight were supposed to take off. All the flights cancelled were of private airline Indigo.

A total of 63 flights set for departure were delayed and 54 that were to arrive in Bengaluru were postponed.

Eight flights were diverted - four each to Chennai and Hyderabad. These cancellations are a part of the total 140 flight schedules that were modified.

Before this, December 30 was the worst affected day of the season with a total of 113 flights affected, including that of three international flights.

Even on that day, flight operations were stalled for close to three and a half hours from 4:58 am to 8:23 am.

According to a report in Deccan Herald, the airport saw 17 days when operations were hit due to fog during the 2016-17 financial year.

So far, this financial year has seen 11 days on which fog interrupted normal flight schedules.

However, the Indian Meteorological Department predicted that fog-induced delays in the city might recur in the coming days, and will only stop in the first week of February.

"This is very behavioural of winter. Fog in the early morning is slated to occur because of the weather during the season," Sundar S Metri, Head of Meteorological Department, Bengaluru, told The Times of India.

Flight delays during this time of year are common in India.