Tuesday saw at least 118 flight cancellations and 130 services delayed at the New Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), as a thick layer of fog disrupted operations amid reduced visibility.
An official said 60 arrivals and 58 departures were cancelled while 16 flights were diverted from the airport, which handles as many as 1,300 flights every day.
Meanwhile, information from flight tracking website Flightradar24.com showed 130 flights were delayed on Tuesday morning at the airport and the average delay time for departures was around 28 minutes.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) had issued a ‘yellow’ alert for the city till 9 am in view of the fog, with the weather office saying visibility at Safdarjung stood at 100 metres at 7.30 am, which later improved to 200 metres by 8.30 am.
At Palam, moderate fog was observed with visibility registered around 300 metres at 8.30 am, it added.
In a post on X in the morning, Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) said all flight operations will continue as normal, but that flights that are not CAT III-compliant may get affected.
CAT III compliance allows pilots to operate flights in low visibility conditions.
The civil aviation ministry also issued an advisory on Tuesday morning, saying airlines have been instructed to strictly comply with passenger facilitation norms that include “timely flight information, meals for delayed passengers, rebooking or refunds in case of cancellations, no denial of boarding after timely check-in, baggage facilitation and prompt grievance redressal”.
Also Read: Fog leads to hundreds of flight cancellations in north India
Additionally, air quality in the national capital region improved marginally to the ‘very poor’ category at 388 on Tuesday morning, marking a marginal improvement from Monday, when the city’s air quality stood at the ‘severe’ category with a reading of 401.
Data from the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) Sameer app on Tuesday showed 16 air quality monitoring stations in the ‘severe’ category still, but 21 stations recorded air quality in the ‘very poor’ category with Jahangirpuri and Anand Vihar registering the worst AQI levels touching 451.
According to the CPCB classification, an AQI between 0 and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 to 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 to 200 ‘moderate’, 201 to 300 ‘poor’, 301 to 400 ‘very poor’, and 401 to 500 ‘severe’.
Air quality in Delhi-NCR is likely to remain in the ‘very poor’ category on Tuesday and Wednesday, and expected to deteriorate further to the ‘severe’ category on January 1, 2026, as per the Air Quality Early Warning System.
It also continues to remain below 10 degrees Celsius, with temperature on Tuesday morning recorded at 9.4 degrees Celsius and the IMD issuing an ‘orange’ alert with a forecast of very dense fog during the day.
It said that the maximum temperature is expected to hover around 21 degrees Celsius, and relative humidity levels are likely to remain near 100 per cent.
At the Palam station, the minimum temperature was registered at 8.1 degrees Celsius, followed by 8.6 degrees Celsius at the Ridge, 9.2 degrees Celsius at the Lodhi Road station, 9.4 degrees Celsius at the Safdarjung station, and 9.6 degrees Celsius at Ayanagar.
No rainfall was logged at any of the stations during the past 24 hours, the weather department informed.
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