War rooms at airports, Jyotiraditya Scindia lists steps to tackle fog delays

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 16

The Central Government on Tuesday announced several more measures to alleviate the misery of air passengers who have been impacted all over the country due to the cascade effect caused by a massive disruption of operations in Delhi and other northern Indian airports due to persistent fog.

Editorial: Chaos at airports

The new instructions, which follow a set of standard operating procedures (SOPs) issued on Monday, are primarily aimed at greater responsiveness and sensitivity from the government apparatus after several videos emerged showing the chaos inside airports and aircraft due to a virtual stoppage of operations in Delhi for some time over the past couple of days due to a combination of factors.

90 flights delayed

Due to dense fog, over 90 domestic flights were either delayed or rescheduled by a few hours at the IGI Airport on Tuesday

Tempers have run ran high due to the long delays and the social media has been flooded with videos of irate passengers and unpleasant incidents, including a passenger assaulting a pilot and passengers sitting on tarmac to have food.

Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia posted on X that Delhi, Mumbai and four other metro airports would report about incidents three times a day. These airports as well as airlines have also been asked to set up “war rooms” to address passenger issues. Scindia also assured that sufficient CISF manpower would be available round the clock at the airports to reduce the long lines for security. “It is my earnest request to all travellers to bear with us during this difficult period,” he appealed.

The minister also said a runway had been enabled with CAT III systems for landing in near-zero visibility.

In what analysts say is an oversight by the ministry, one CAT III-enabled runway went under maintenance just before the start of the fog season. The closed CAT-III runway added to the pressure on the sole CAT III-enabled runway. The problem piled up because there was already a backlog of flights during the hours when visibility was zero and even the CAT III was of no help.

Eating on tarmac: Notice issued

The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security has issued notices to IndiGo and Mumbai airport operator after a video went viral showing passengers having food on the airport tarmac on Sunday.

Five more days of fog

Very dense fog and cold wave conditions are likely to continue in North India over the next five days, said the IMD on Tuesday. Minimum temperatures will be in the range of 2-5°C over most parts in the region.

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