BENGALURU: Poor visibility conditions at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) played havoc with flight schedules on Sunday morning. Numerous flights were cancelled, with Indigo alone cancelling 44 flights, while six flights were diverted to neighbouring airports of Hyderabad and Chennai. Schedule of all other flights were disrupted between 7.30 am and 10.30 am, with 16 arriving flights delayed while 15 departing flights suffered delays.
According to a statement from the airport operator, Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), four of the diversions were to Hyderabad airport while two were to Chennai airport. Ramesh Babu, Director, Aviation Forecasting, KIA, said that poor weather conditions that began at 6.50 am hit a low at 7.35 am when the Runway visibility touched 425 metres as fog set in. “Flights can land only when the runway visibility is atleast 550 metres and so flights could not do so for nearly 50 minutes in the morning. This dim visibility continued upto 8.15 am. Similar conditions are expected to prevail upto January end.”
However, he further added that the new runway will offer relief from December 5 as it is CAT-III compliant and can operate flights in dim visibility conditions. A statement from Indigo Airlines, said that 44 of its flights were cancelled today due to prevailing weather conditions in Bengaluru.“We are expecting operations to remain disrupted tomorrow on account of the bad weather,” it said. Indigo added that the affected passengers were either accommodated in subsequent flights or provided with alternate options.