Over 100 flights delayed at Bengaluru airport as fog hits visibility

Among the flights delayed, 36 were to land at the airport and 70 were to depart
Over 100 flights delayed at Bengaluru airport as fog hits visibility
Over 100 flights delayed at Bengaluru airport as fog hits visibility
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Passengers flying in the early morning from Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) suffered as fog delayed more than 100 flights, including four international flights on Saturday.

Times of India reported that each flight was delayed by an average of three hours as visibility fell to less than 50 metres.

Hundreds of passengers were stranded at the airport as the flights, between 4:30 am and 8 am, neither could land nor could depart due to low visibility. The operations which resumed after 8 am were normal during the rest of the day. Among the flights delayed, 36 were to land at the airport and 70 were to depart.

An airport officer told TOI that no flight was cancelled.

A Bengaluru-Mangaluru Jet Airways flight, which normally takes a little over an hour, on Saturday took three hours. The flight that was to land at 8:55 am landed at 10:15 am, reported TOI.

The newspaper reported that the 4 international flights that were delayed were a Lufthansa service to Amsterdam; an Emirates flight to Dubai; a Qatar Airways service to Doha; and a British Airways flight to Heathrow.

Ashok V Raman, a cinematographer, who had left home at 4 am to catch a flight to Mumbai told TOI that he had to cancel all his meetings because his flight took off after 10 am.  “More than 30 flights were ahead of us waiting for take-off,” he said.

An airport official told TOI: “From food to other facilities, the passengers were taken care of. Since the weather is not in our control, and safety is a priority, we have to delay flights.”

Officers at KIA said that though the airport takes several measures to counter fog-related delays, a total avoidance is not possible.

The role of the Airport Operational Control Centre is a very important one as, as it is directly linked to the air traffic control centre and the meteorological department, and it ensures smooth operations during winter. The Met department has installed equipment to determine visibility.

This is an aggregated report from The Hindu and Times of India

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