A thick blanket of fog disrupted the movement of flights at Gannavaram airport on Wednesday. As a consequence, Air India flights between Vijayawada and Delhi and Spice Jet services between Vijayawada and Hyderabad and Vijayawada and Bengaluru were delayed.
Visibility was poor in the morning and the situation did not improve till afternoon. However, no flight was either diverted or cancelled.
Airport Director G. Madhusudan Rao said it was hard to guess whether the services would be affected by foggy conditions in the coming days.
Poor visibility
Pilots could not see through the fog even up to a distance of 15 metres whereas a clear visibility of up to 1,500 metres was essential for safe landing and takeoff. The Air India flight from Delhi arrived almost three hours behind schedule and the Spice Jet flight from Hyderabad was late by two-and-a-half hours.
Pilots play it safe
Pilots in other cities have been inquiring about the conditions at Gannavaram before flying in for the last two to three days and thereby managed to avoid cancellations and last-minute diversions.
Unusal phenomenon
The weather is being closely watched, as it played truant and appropriate measures are being taken to avoid inconvenience to the flight passengers.
Fog rarely envelopes these parts of the country with so much intensity during this time of the year.
