Worried if your flight will take off on time this winter? Some help is at hand.

The weatherman will now provide a fog forecast for 12 airports, providing potential relief to passengers whose flights at New Delhi and other airports in north India are likely to be disrupted due to inclement weather over the next month.

The website of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) will now provide fog forecast for a total of 12 airports including Delhi, Lucknow, Jaipur, Amritsar, Varanasi, Patna, Agartala, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Gaya, Guwahati and Bengaluru. The fog forecast will be made every six hours starting 0000 hours.

The website of IMD will also provide live updates on the runway visual range of three airports of Delhi, Lucknow, and Kolkata.

While the amount of moisture is decreasing in Delhi air over the last three years, leading to the lesser duration of fog, its period cannot be predicted and remains uncertain, according to IMD officials.

Last year, Delhi airport had its most intense fog from January 2-4 with the entire fog season falling in the period from mid-December to late January.

Delhi airport has started preparations for the disruptive season and has planned for more follow-me vehicles and special airside monitoring inspectors. As pilots have a limited view from the cockpit, Follow-me vehicles are used to facilitate aircraft movement.

"The best tip is to check the flight status and fog status online before leaving for the airport," an official said.

The airport has also changed the vehicular lane connecting T1 to other terminals to minimize interaction with runway 28. The airport has three runways- Runway 28, 29 and 11. All the runways are certified for CAT-IIIB operations which allows compliant Aircraft with trained pilots to land when the runway visibility is as low as 50 m.

As of now, there are 120 parking stands with CAT-III lighting for low runway visibility conditions and 83 additional stands will be available under manual guidance.

"Practically, the problem starts when the runway visibility is between 75 m and 125 m. In this scenario, CAT-IIIB compliant Aircraft with trained pilots can land but can't take off. So if the fog period continues for a longer period then it leads to disruption," an official said.

The airport will also provide thermal imaging headgear for personnel on the airside. A 24*7 social media command center has also been set up for passengers' assistance. Passengers travelling to or from Delhi can also reach out to Delhi airport on 0124-4797300

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First Published:Dec 17, 2019 9:08 PM IST