An Arctic air mass sweeping across northern India plunged visibility at Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) to barely 50 m in the predawn hours of 31 December. With the three CAT-III-equipped runways usable only by airlines and crews endorsed for ultra-low-visibility operations, Delhi International Airport Ltd. was forced to cancel 78 arrivals and 70 departures and divert several aircraft to Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Lucknow. More than 200 other services pushed back hours behind schedule, shredding end-of-year itineraries for business travellers and holidaymakers alike.
The knock-on effect rippled through the country’s entire domestic network: aircraft and crews displaced from Delhi upset rotations in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, while freight forwarders reported delays of up to 18 hours for time-sensitive pharma exports. Airlines issued blanket travel advisories on X and WhatsApp, offering no-fee re-booking and urging passengers to complete web check-in to ease terminal congestion.
Caught in such last-minute changes, some travellers also find themselves scrambling for fresh visas or transit permits—especially if their rerouted journeys touch additional international hubs. VisaHQ can step in here with same-day processing of Indian e-visas, transit clearances and passport renewals, letting passengers and corporate travel managers update documents as quickly as flight plans. Explore the options at https://www.visahq.com/india/.
![Dense fog paralyses Delhi’s IGI Airport: 148 flights scrapped, 200-plus delayed]()
Corporate travel managers scrambled to re-route executives through Chandigarh or Jaipur, but north-India’s rail network was equally hobbled by fog-related speed restrictions. Travel-management companies advised clients to favour early-afternoon departures, when visibility historically improves, and to verify that booked carriers operate CAT-III-certified aircraft.
For mobility planners the lesson is clear: winter weather in Delhi can remove up to 5 % of national seat capacity every hour a runway closes. Until mid-January, programmes that depend on tight hub-and-spoke connections should build at least a six-hour buffer, book flexible hotel rates and keep ground-transport options on standby.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation has convened an emergency meeting with the Airports Authority of India to explore fast-tracking Ground-Based Augmentation System (GBAS) trials that could allow more aircraft types to land safely in near-zero visibility by next winter.
The knock-on effect rippled through the country’s entire domestic network: aircraft and crews displaced from Delhi upset rotations in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, while freight forwarders reported delays of up to 18 hours for time-sensitive pharma exports. Airlines issued blanket travel advisories on X and WhatsApp, offering no-fee re-booking and urging passengers to complete web check-in to ease terminal congestion.
Caught in such last-minute changes, some travellers also find themselves scrambling for fresh visas or transit permits—especially if their rerouted journeys touch additional international hubs. VisaHQ can step in here with same-day processing of Indian e-visas, transit clearances and passport renewals, letting passengers and corporate travel managers update documents as quickly as flight plans. Explore the options at https://www.visahq.com/india/.
Corporate travel managers scrambled to re-route executives through Chandigarh or Jaipur, but north-India’s rail network was equally hobbled by fog-related speed restrictions. Travel-management companies advised clients to favour early-afternoon departures, when visibility historically improves, and to verify that booked carriers operate CAT-III-certified aircraft.
For mobility planners the lesson is clear: winter weather in Delhi can remove up to 5 % of national seat capacity every hour a runway closes. Until mid-January, programmes that depend on tight hub-and-spoke connections should build at least a six-hour buffer, book flexible hotel rates and keep ground-transport options on standby.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation has convened an emergency meeting with the Airports Authority of India to explore fast-tracking Ground-Based Augmentation System (GBAS) trials that could allow more aircraft types to land safely in near-zero visibility by next winter.
