North India’s notorious winter fog returned with a vengeance on 21 December 2025, forcing airlines to cancel more than 110 flights and delay over 370 at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) alone. Airports in Lucknow, Amritsar and Chandigarh reported visibility below 125 metres at dawn, triggering low-visibility procedures (LVP) that ripple through the national network.
IndiGo, India’s largest carrier, pre-emptively issued a travel advisory late Saturday warning passengers of “possible delays and cancellations on 6E flights operating to and from North Indian stations.” By mid-morning Sunday the airline had scrubbed at least 60 rotations system-wide. Air India launched its newly minted “FogCare” programme, allowing no-fee re-booking within three days or full refunds, and deployed extra customer-service staff to handle call volumes.
The disruptions snarled corporate itineraries at the height of year-end business travel. Executives commuting between Delhi and Bengaluru reported missed client meetings, while exporters shipping high-value pharma consignments via belly cargo faced delivery penalties. Logistics managers should activate contingency routing through Mumbai or Hyderabad, where weather remained clear.
![Dense fog grounds flights across North India; airlines activate contingency plans]()
While flight cancellations dominate the headlines, travellers must also keep their documentation current. VisaHQ’s streamlined platform (https://www.visahq.com/india/) can secure India business visas or e-visas at short notice, arrange courier pick-up of passports and provide real-time status alerts—reducing paperwork stress when fog plays havoc with schedules.
Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) said all CAT-III instrument-landing systems were operational but warned that taxi-out bottlenecks and crew-duty limits still force cancellations even when landings are technically possible. The Civil Aviation Ministry is reviewing proposals to stagger early-morning departure banks and accelerate rollout of the DigiYatra face-recognition e-gate system to cut dwell times once operations resume.
For mobility managers the key takeaway is preparedness: build fog clauses into Indian travel policies, brief travellers to pad schedules by at least six hours when flying into North India from December to February, and encourage the use of flexible tickets. Companies with mission-critical travel should consider shifting meetings online or relocating to southern hubs during peak fog weeks.
IndiGo, India’s largest carrier, pre-emptively issued a travel advisory late Saturday warning passengers of “possible delays and cancellations on 6E flights operating to and from North Indian stations.” By mid-morning Sunday the airline had scrubbed at least 60 rotations system-wide. Air India launched its newly minted “FogCare” programme, allowing no-fee re-booking within three days or full refunds, and deployed extra customer-service staff to handle call volumes.
The disruptions snarled corporate itineraries at the height of year-end business travel. Executives commuting between Delhi and Bengaluru reported missed client meetings, while exporters shipping high-value pharma consignments via belly cargo faced delivery penalties. Logistics managers should activate contingency routing through Mumbai or Hyderabad, where weather remained clear.
While flight cancellations dominate the headlines, travellers must also keep their documentation current. VisaHQ’s streamlined platform (https://www.visahq.com/india/) can secure India business visas or e-visas at short notice, arrange courier pick-up of passports and provide real-time status alerts—reducing paperwork stress when fog plays havoc with schedules.
Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) said all CAT-III instrument-landing systems were operational but warned that taxi-out bottlenecks and crew-duty limits still force cancellations even when landings are technically possible. The Civil Aviation Ministry is reviewing proposals to stagger early-morning departure banks and accelerate rollout of the DigiYatra face-recognition e-gate system to cut dwell times once operations resume.
For mobility managers the key takeaway is preparedness: build fog clauses into Indian travel policies, brief travellers to pad schedules by at least six hours when flying into North India from December to February, and encourage the use of flexible tickets. Companies with mission-critical travel should consider shifting meetings online or relocating to southern hubs during peak fog weeks.
