Thick fog blanketed Patna on Thursday, throwing air travel into disarray and leaving hundreds of passengers stranded and frustrated at the city's Jay Prakash Narayan International Airport. The severe weather conditions led to significant delays and cancellations, disrupting schedules for the entire day.
Visibility Drops to 100 Metres, Flight Operations Crippled
Passengers, wrapped in winter jackets, spent anxious hours checking flight information screens as dense fog severely hampered operations. The poor visibility forced airlines to reschedule both departures and arrivals. According to the duty officer at the Patna meteorological office, the situation was most critical in the early morning. Visibility plummeted to a mere 100 metres at 6:30 am. It showed a slight improvement later, reaching 350 metres around the time the first flights were due.
The ripple effect of the fog was immediate. The first flight of the day, an Air India service from Delhi, finally landed at approximately 11:15 am, a delay of over one and a half hours from its scheduled arrival time of 9:40 am. Officials from the Airports Authority of India at Patna airport explained the technical parameters, stating, "The runway visual range (RVR) allows aircraft to land at 1,000m and take off at 800m. When the first flight landed, the RVR was 1,100m." Visibility saw its best levels, peaking at 1,000 metres between 5:30 pm and 7 pm.
Cascading Delays and Multiple Cancellations
The delays for incoming flights created a domino effect on outgoing services. The scale of the disruption was substantial:
- Around 18 incoming flights to Patna were delayed.
- 22 outgoing flights departed behind schedule.
- Five IndiGo flights were cancelled entirely. These included services to major metropolitan hubs: Kolkata, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. The airline cited operational constraints due to the weather.
The airport terminal became a scene of frustration. Rajan Singh, a passenger awaiting a delayed flight to Delhi, voiced the common grievance: "The airline is not ready to improve services on the pretext of fog and bad weather. While other airlines are on time, why is IndiGo hiding its failure to be punctual? I am waiting for my flight to Delhi, which is already two hours late."
Airlines Issue Advisories, More Fog Expected
In response to the chaotic situation, airlines proactively communicated with passengers. IndiGo issued a statement advising, "Low visibility and fog over Patna may impact flight schedules. We are closely monitoring the weather and doing our best to get flyers where they need to be, safely and smoothly. We request that flyers stay updated on our flight status."
Similarly, SpiceJet warned travellers, "Due to bad weather in Patna (PAT), all departures/arrivals and their consequential flights may be affected." The central advice from all authorities was for passengers to monitor real-time flight updates before leaving for the airport.
With the meteorological office indicating that dense fog conditions are likely to persist over the coming days, flyers are urged to plan their travel carefully. Regularly checking flight schedules is essential to avoid prolonged and inconvenient waits at the airport.
