Delhi fog gets more than 100 flights grounded, diverted: People across the country affected

Heavy fog in Delhi on December 31 played spoilsport with the plans of thousands of passengers for New Year's Eve as more than 100 flights were either cancelled or delayed at the national capital or diverted to other cities.

The grounding — and in some cases outright cancellation — of flights resulted in suffering for people around the country.

While some had to wait extra for their connecting flights, others never even got to catch theirs.

Heavy fog since morning

The whole of Delhi on Sunday woke up to heavy cover of fog, with visibilty of hardly a few metres.

The fog led to total stoppage of all flight services at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport from 8 am to 10 am. The airport's operations were stopped for some more time, and resumed only at 11 am, reported news agency ANI.

By that time, more than 90 flights had been grounded and 40 others diverted to other cities, causing inconvenience to thousands of passengers.

Among those affected was BJP MP Manoj Tiwari. The actor-turned-politician is also a Lok Sabha Member, and from the Delhi (North-East) constituency.

Meanwhile, airlines like Air India (AI) was already warning passengers about the condition in Delhi. The national carrier tweeted from its official handle: "#flyAI #AirIndiaupdates Due to dense #fog at Delhi airport flight schedules have been affected & consequential delays are likely. Passengers are requested to check # our flight status before leaving for airport [sic]."

Passengers irate

The delay and grounding of flights in Delhi led to flight services in other cities to also be affected.

Vistara Chief Strategy and Commercial Officer Sanjiv Kapoor was one of the top airline bosses keeping passengers informed about the delays.

He had to explain to one such passenger that the delay of a Vistara flight in Hyderabad was due to flight conditions in Delhi.

Flight services at the IGI Airport had not returned to normalcy at the time of writing this report. You can check the live flight details at the airport HERE.