By Dense fog disrupted New Year’s Eve travel in the national capital on Wednesday, with 150 flights cancelled and over 250 delayed at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport. Poor visibility early in the morning forced airlines such as IndiGo, Air India and SpiceJet to issue travel advisories, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded.
According to airport sources, the cancellations included 79 arriving and 71 departing flights, while delays continued to mount as visibility dropped to just a few metres. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) had earlier issued a yellow alert, warning of moderate to dense fog across Delhi on December 31.
The impact was not limited to air travel. Rail services were also affected, with several trains running behind schedule due to low visibility, prompting long waits for passengers at railway stations across the city.
Adding to the woes, Delhi’s air quality remained alarmingly poor. The overall Air Quality Index (AQI) stood at 383 as of 6:05 am, placing it in the “very poor” category and close to slipping into “severe”, according to data from the Central Pollution Control Board’s Sameer app.
