Vacation plans of passengers go for a toss as severe fog disrupts flights at Bengaluru airport

Two flights were diverted, while 62 outgoing flights and 18 incoming flights were delayed as a consequence, according to a spokesperson of the airport operator, Bangalore International Airport Limited

Foggy conditions at KIA Bengaluru on Tuesday morning (Photo | Express) 

BENGALURU: The vacation plans of many flyers were disrupted on Tuesday morning due to severe fog at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA).

Two flights were diverted, while 62 outgoing flights and 18 incoming flights were delayed as a consequence, according to a spokesperson of the airport operator, Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL). This despite one of the airport runways, the South Runway, being CAT-III compliant that facilitates landing and take off under poor visibility conditions.

Two arrival flights were diverted due to poor visibilty. The spokesperson said an Air India flight from Abu Dhabi to Kannur which was supposed to land at Bengaluru was diverted to Chennai. The other diverted flight was a cargo flight of SpiceJet from Hyderabad which was diverted to Chennai instead of KIA.

An airport source said that poor visibility conditions prevailed between 3 am and 9 am. The KIA weather department is yet to respond to queries on exact weather conditions.

Delays ranged between 20 minutes and 70 minutes. Among the departing flights delayed from Bengaluru were the IndiGo flight to Kochi (6E 6445), SpiceJet (SG136) to New Delhi, GoFirst (G8 385) to Mumbai and SpiceJet to Mangaluru (SG 4009).  

Foggy conditions have regularly impacted flights at KIA from mid-November to mid-February.

Pilots not CAT-III trained

It was a year ago that the second runway, the South Runway, was announced as the first CAT-III compliant runway in South India. BIAL had then announced that it could facilitate aircraft landing with a Runway Visual Range as low as 50 metres and take-offs at 125 metres.

“Until now, the permissible visual range was 550m and 300m, for landing and take-off, respectively,” it had stated. Asked about the lack of effectiveness of the CAT-III compliancy, the spokeperson added, “CAT-III B runway does not mean all aircraft can operate on low visibility. Only CAT III B trained pilots can.” The older runway, the North Runway, which was fully refurbished, is not CAT-III compliant.  

Flights were operating normally from early in the afternoon.