Chaos prevailed at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) after flight services were badly hit for the third consecutive day on Saturday on account of fog. Several passengers claimed that they were made to wait for as long as six hours at the airport.
Operations were suspended for nearly two hours from 7.04 a.m. to 8.51 a.m. A total of 28 departures and 12 arrivals were delayed due to poor visibility. Ten flights were diverted to Chennai, Coimbatore and Hyderabad.
Passengers who were stranded in waiting lounges and inside aircraft for hours took to Twitter to vent their ire. Many complained that there was no space to stand as people gathered at their gates waiting for their flights to take off. Others said that they were given very little information by their carriers.
The morning disruption had an impact on the flight schedule later in the day. One parent, Ajay Agarwal, tweeted that his school-going daughter and son were stranded at the airport for six hours. Another passenger said there was no space to stand in the lounge and complained of mismanagement.
Rajneesh Kumar, chief corporate affairs officer at Flipkart, tweeted that a flight which was scheduled to leave at 4 a.m. had been delayed by seven hours. “Staff has no clue. Terrible experience,” he wrote.
A man tweeted that his wife was stuck on a plane for two hours. “Boarding done but no AC and no food arrangements. She (his wife) is started feeling suffocated and uneasy. Why board passengers if you are not ready. Disgraceful service...,” said the passenger.
On Saturday, the visibility dropped to 50 metres. An official of the Indian Meteorological Department (aviation services) said, “Minimum runway temperature dropped to 11 degree Celsius. It was taking time for the dense fog to clear. Till 8.40 a.m. visibility was only till 100 metres. Vegetation and water bodies near the airport are factors for the drop in temperature. On January 4, the minimum temperature dropped to 10 degree Celsius. Forecast suggest that dense fog will continue on Sunday.”
The existing runway is not equipped with CAT III B which allows operations of flight even in low visibility. The Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) has been maintaining that fog related disruption in flight services will be addressed next winter once the second runway becomes operational on October 1. The new runway has a length of 4,000 metres and is CAT III B compliant.
