By IANS
New Delhi : At least a dozen flights’ scheduled were disrupted severely and five domestic arrivals were diverted to nearby cities due to poor visibility at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) here, but Delhi continued to enjoy a spell of warm weather Thursday.
Though fog in Delhi was not as dense as on earlier days, “poor visibility in the morning disrupted the schedule of at least a dozen flights”, said an airport official.
The safeguard measures were put in place soon after 7.30 in the morning, and between 8.25 and 9.20 a.m. five flights were diverted to other cities.
Airlines sources said two Delhi-bound flights – one each from Indigo and Spicejet – were diverted to Jaipur and one Kingfisher flight was diverted to Ahmedabad. Similarly, two flights – one each of Deccan and Jetlite – were diverted to Lucknow.
However, the sources said the situation has improved and the runway visibility was around 1,500 meters.
Meanwhile, the capital city witnessed a warm morning with minimum temperate touching 13.2 degrees Celsius, six notches above normal.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that the warm weather condition would continue till weekend but scattered rain Wednesday would bring back the chill.
“Till 8.30 a.m., the capital experienced 1.8 mm rainfall and there is nothing unusual about it. But the cloud cover will help the minimum temperature to stay above normal level,” said an IMD official.
Residents in the capital feel this year’s winter is strange with thick fog in mid December, severe cold in the first week of January (2.6 degrees on Jan 1 and 1.9 degrees Jan 2) and a sudden rise in minimum temperature during the last couple of days.
But, IMD officials said it was nothing unusual and assured that winter is far from over.
“We are very much in winter and people will experience cold spell again. Wednesday night rain will bring back the chill soon,” the official said.