Measures being put in place to deal with fog impacting flight operations, says Scindia

New Delhi: Amid dense fog disrupting flight operations at the Delhi airport in the last few days, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Friday said the ministry is coordinating with the airport and airlines, and putting in place measures to deal with the issue.

Terming the fog issue as a "transitory phenomenon", the minister in an interview also said this year the situation has been slightly unprecedented in terms of the density of fog.

Many flights were diverted and scores were delayed at the Delhi airport due to dense fog. "Fog issue is an issue that we encounter 15-20 days every year... this year, there has been unprecedented fog for the last three or four days. We are coordinating with all the airlines to make sure that they have CAT II and CAT III-trained pilots during fog hours, thereby easing congestion," Scindia said. CAT II and III requirement pertains to operating flights in low visibility conditions. The civil aviation ministry is monitoring the fog situation on a daily basis.

He also said measures are being put in place, including to monitor congestion at a landing airport so that take off is not allowed if there is no direct routing as that will ensure there is no congestion. "We are putting in place all those measures between airports and airlines.. it is slightly unprecedented in terms of density of the fog but it is a transitory phenomenon," he added. On Thursday, airport sources said a total of 58 flights, the majority of them operated by domestic carriers, were diverted due to bad weather between 0000 hours of December 25 to 0600 hours of December 28