Fog hung heavy over Indian skies for a 3rd day on Tuesday, disrupting air journey and prompting the federal government to step in.

The civil aviation ministry directed six metro airports to arrange conflict rooms and report incidents thrice a day. The directive to airports in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Chennai comes after flight delays, diversions and cancellations botched journey plans and frayed tempers.

“We have sought incidence reporting thrice each day for all of the six metro airports. The implementation of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s directives, normal working procedures and civil aviation necessities will likely be monitored and reported commonly,” Union civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia stated.

The six airports and the airways there should arrange conflict rooms to shortly deal with points relating to passenger inconvenience, the minister stated. “Sufficient Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) manpower availability will likely be ensured round the clock,” he added.

Tuesday’s authorities motion got here after a passenger in Delhi on Sunday assaulted a pilot over a 13-hour delay, and others on the Mumbai airport dined on the tarmac near a aircraft. The passenger who assaulted the IndiGo pilot was arrested and let off on bail, whereas the airline took steps to place him on a no-fly record.

Separately, the civil aviation ministry issued a show-cause discover to IndiGo and the Mumbai airport after a video of passengers consuming on the tarmac surfaced. The discover cited violation of Rule 51 of the Aircraft (Security) Rules, 2023, relating to failure to watch safety procedures.

“Both IndiGo and the Mumbai International Airport weren’t proactive in anticipating the state of affairs and in making applicable facilitation preparations for passengers on the airport,” an official aware of the development said. “In the case of both notices, the ministry has asked for replies by 16 January. If replies are not received in the given time, then enforcement action including financial penalty will be initiated,” the official added. IndiGo stated it has initiated an inside enquiry and also will reply to the discover.

An Air India flight from Kozhikode to Mumbai was delayed by greater than 12 hours—from 6.50pm on Sunday to eight.30am on Monday.

“It was a nightmare. First, we have been instructed our flight has been rescheduled to 9.55pm and later round 10-10.30pm. After asking the employees a number of instances, they instructed us that it’s going to now take off tomorrow at 7.35am. To high all of it, we have been made to attend on the airport since 4pm, and have been instructed to depart the airport premises with out giving any assurance about our lodging for the night time. We actually needed to put our foot all the way down to get the lodging, even then it was not offered to all,” passenger Anshika Verma instructed PTI.

Many vented their ire on X. Visuals of lengthy queues at airports, some sitting or mendacity on the ground ready for updates on their flight standing, appeared on social media platforms.

Meanwhile, the Delhi airport, India’s largest and busiest with 1,400-1,500 each day flights, on Tuesday made its 29L runway totally operational for CAT III flight operations. In aviation, Category III, or CAT III, refers to a sort of automated system that facilitates touchdown in very low visibility circumstances.

While a runway will be approached from two ends, just one finish of the 29L runway was CAT III-compliant thus far, permitting planes to land with a runway visible vary lower than 200m however not lower than 50m. On Tuesday, this runway was made totally CAT III-compliant. The airport’s predominant CAT III-compliant runway 28/10 is but to return to service.

“Operationalization of RWY 28/10 as CAT III at Delhi Airport after re-carpeting may even be undertaken,” Scindia stated.

On Tuesday, the federal government’s climate workplace warned that fog might have an effect on some airports, highways and railway routes in Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, north Rajasthan and north Madhya Pradesh.

Broadly, fog-induced disruptions eased on Tuesday, and the Delhi airport reported no flight diversions. However, greater than 100-120 flights nonetheless confronted delays on the airport. On a median, an plane completes round 4 flights a day. Hence, a delay at any level causes a domino impact, and impacts departures and arrivals for different locations over the day.

“Air India regrets the disruption to operations arising from the previous few days’ dense fog in North India, together with at our predominant Delhi hub, which resulted in some diversions and desynchronization of plane and crew rotations. We are working arduous to revive schedules, and sincerely remorse the inconvenience triggered to our passengers,” the Tata group-owned airline stated in an announcement.

Latest information for 15 January confirmed dismal ranges of punctuality. IndiGo reported on-time efficiency of twenty-two.1% (towards 21% on 14 January), Air India 18.6% (towards 46.8%), SpiceJet 42.7% (towards 51.8%), Vistara 54.3% (towards 29.6%), AIX Connect 31.3% (towards 30.2% and Akasa Air 66.2% (towards 41.8%).

With inputs from PTI.