IndiGo cancels 80 flights across network on account of bad weather conditions

A blanket of dense winter fog once again cast its shadow over India’s skies on Monday, forcing IndiGo to cancel as many as 80 flights across its vast domestic network and leaving travel plans in disarray for thousands of passengers.

Nearly half of the cancellations were concentrated at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, where flight operations continued under low-visibility CAT III conditions. The national capital, already grappling with thick fog since the early hours, emerged as the epicentre of the disruption.

Beyond Delhi, the ripple effects were felt across the country. Flights to and from major hubs and regional airports — including Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kochi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Dehradun, Indore, Patna and Bhopal — were also grounded, according to information available on IndiGo’s website.

In a travel advisory issued at 11.20 am, the airline said foggy conditions continued to prevail across Delhi and several airports in northern India, with visibility showing little sign of improvement. As a result, the early-morning disruptions were expected to spill over into the afternoon, with delays lingering well into the day.

While IndiGo stopped short of explicitly confirming the number of cancellations in its post on X, it sought to reassure passengers that departures and arrivals were being carefully sequenced to ensure orderly movement, with traveller safety and comfort remaining the priority.

The latest round of cancellations adds to a challenging winter season for the airline. Since the onset of the fog window on 10 December, IndiGo has been forced to ground flights repeatedly due to adverse weather. On 25 December alone, 67 flights were cancelled, followed by another 57 on Saturday, all attributed to poor visibility. Earlier this month, the carrier had also cancelled thousands of flights — 1,600 in a single day — after court-mandated changes to pilot duty and rest norms, stranding lakhs of passengers nationwide.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has designated the period from December 10 to February 10 as the official fog season, a time when dense mist routinely tests both flight operations and passenger patience.

Echoing the concerns, Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) said in a morning advisory that persistent dense fog had kept operations under CAT III conditions, warning of possible delays and urging passengers to stay in touch with airlines or check official websites for real-time updates.

Under DGCA’s fog operations norms, airlines are required to deploy CAT IIIB-compliant aircraft and roster pilots specially trained to operate in near-zero visibility. Category III systems allow aircraft to land even in extremely poor visibility — CAT III-A enabling landings with a runway visual range of 200 metres, and CAT III-B allowing approaches with visibility of less than 50 metres.

As winter tightens its grip, airlines and airports remain locked in a daily battle with the fog, striving to keep aircraft moving safely while passengers brace for continued disruptions in the weeks ahead.

With PTI inputs