Mumbai: Thirty-eight Delhi-bound flights from Mumbai and 53 Mumbai-bound flights from Delhi were cancelled in January, almost all of them because of fog in New Delhi, airport officials say. The fog also forced 19 Delhi-bound flights to be diverted to Mumbai.
“One or two cancellations may have been for other reasons but to the best of my knowledge, Delhi-bound flights were cancelled because of dense fog at the Delhi airport,” said a senior flight safety official with a private carrier.
Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) recorded 172 hours of fog in January making it the highest since 2003. Almost half of all domestic air travel in India takes place between Delhi and Mumbai, over 600 flights a week on an average, with minimum passenger load factor of 75-80%.
“The airlines have been losing money because of diversions and cancellations. If there is a cancellation, we need to accommodate outstation guests and if there is a long queue to land or if our flights are diverted we incur additional losses of at least 5-6 lakh rupees every additional hour till the aircraft is operational,” said a senior official of a leading private carrier. “Eventually you face passengers’ ire as well,” he added.
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