At least eight flights taking off from the Bengaluru International Airport at Devanahalli, near here, on Saturday morning were delayed and some incoming flights were diverted as fog enveloped the airport twice, causing poor visibility.
The operations were affected due to low visibility from 6.54 a.m. and 7.44 a.m. and from 8 a.m. and 8.14 a.m., following which eight flights from Bangalore were delayed, a spokesperson for Bangalore International Airport Ltd. (BIAL) told The Hindu .
A spokesperson of a leading airline, who requested anonymity, said that the fog-related delay in flights also led to (consequential) delays of flights that were scheduled to take off.
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According to details on flight arrivals available on the BIAL website, four flights arriving here from Chennai, Pune, Mumbai and Hyderabad (around the same time that the fog enveloped the airport), were diverted.
BIAL authorities had anticipated fog from only November 15 to February 15 between 3 a.m. and 8.30 a.m. that could affect the operations. According to the BIAL website, the aircraft can undertake normal operations at BIA as long as the runway visual range is 400 metres.
Meanwhile, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) officials said that due to the flow of northerly wind, the night temperatures have come down by 1 degree Celsius, which is resulting in misty conditions on the city’s outskirts.
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IMD officials said that summer has all but set in. The daytime temperature has been hovering around 32 degrees Celsius over the past week, and is likely to remain the same for the next two days.
Y.K. Narasimhamurthy, Assistant Meteorologist, IMD, said the temperature was expected to go up in the coming days. “Due to the present scenario where there is no low pressure area over the Bay of Bengal, there are mainly clear sky conditions. As a result, the temperatures are increasing,” he said.