Air India, IndiGo worst hit in terms of on-time flight performance as fog blocks visibility

A thick layer of fog that covered several parts of North India continued to restrict the timely performance of airlines. According to data from the civil aviation ministry’s website, civilaviation.gov.in, Air India recorded a timely performance of 18.6 per cent, as of Wednesday evening, followed by IndiGo (22.1 per cent), AirAsia India (31.3 per cent), SpiceJet (42.7 per cent) and Vistara (54.3 per cent). 

In terms of passenger load factor (PLF), a key metric used to gauge the proportion of occupied seats to total seat capacity, AirAsia India was the worst impacted (91.1 per cent), followed by IndiGo (92.8 per cent) and Akasa Air (93.5 per cent), the data showed. A higher PLF reading indicates an airline has sold most of its available seats, and thus considered the most profitable, and vice versa. 

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicts "dense to very dense fog and cold day to severe cold day conditions" in the northern parts of the country over the next 4-5 days.

Daily Weather Briefing English (17.01.2024)

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— India Meteorological Department (@Indiametdept) January 17, 2024

Poor visibility, on account of bad weather, has caused a host of flights to be delayed or cancelled altogether this week. Read more on weather-affected flights

Delhi: Over 170 flights affected, 20 trains delayed due to fog

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— ANI Digital (@ani_digital) January 17, 2024

Fog weather update: A cold wave blankets many regions in North India

The mercury dropped to 3.5 degrees Celsius in the national capital on Wednesday, four notches below normal, with Delhiites experiencing cold-day conditions for the seventh day in a row. Moderate fog was observed with dense fog conditions recorded in the isolated parts of the city. 

How foggy is the fog?

Weather office IMD classifies fog intensity into four types: shallow (visibility ranging from 999 m to 500 m), moderate (499 m to 200 m), dense (199 m to 50 m) and very dense (less than 50 m). “Latest Satellite pictures at 0700 am of today indicates that fog has reduced over Bihar, east UP, north MP & Delhi since midnight. However, dense fog is still prevailing over parts of Punjab, Haryana, West Uttar Pradesh & northwest Rajasthan and likely to continue few more hours,” the IMD posted on microblogging site X (formerly Twitter) in the morning.

On Monday, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that all stakeholders were working round-the-clock to minimise fog-related disruptions.

How cold is the cold wave?

In the plains, the IMD declares a cold wave if the minimum temperature dips to 4 degrees Celsius or when the minimum temperature is 10 degrees or below and is four-and-a-half notches below the normal. A severe cold wave is when the minimum temperature dips to 2 degrees Celsius or the departure from the normal is by more than 6.4 degrees.

A cold day is when the minimum temperature is less than or equal to 10 degrees Celsius below the normal and the maximum temperature is at least 4.5 degrees below normal. A severe cold day is when the maximum is 6.5 degrees Celsius or more below normal.

With inputs from agencies