DIAL in chaos: Over 90 flights delayed from Delhi airport, as 'war rooms' flail

Despite the establishment of 'war rooms' at six metropolitan airports, chaos at Delhi airport continued for the third day today, with the departure of over 90 domestic flights either delayed or rescheduled by a few hours.

“From 6 am onwards over 90 domestic flights departing from the Delhi airport were rescheduled while over three were reported cancelled,” the Delhi airport’s official website, managed by GMR, showed.

As per sources, the delays were attributed to dense fog in the morning leading to air traffic congestion.

Meanwhile, Union minister of civil aviation, Jyotiraditya Scindia, said today, 16 January, that standard operating procedures (SOPs) to alleviate passenger inconvenience had been issued to all airlines on Monday, 15 January.

'In addition to these SOPs, we have sought incidence reporting thrice daily for all the six metro airports. Implementation of the @DGCAIndia Directives, SOPs, and CARs will be monitored and reported regularly,' the minister tweeted.

To address issues promptly, Scindia mentioned the establishment of 'war rooms' at the six metropolitan airports, where airport and airline operators will work collaboratively.

These 'war rooms' will be dedicated to resolving any problems related to passenger inconvenience in real-time.

Furthermore, Scindia assured round-the-clock availability of sufficient CISF manpower to ensure the security and smooth functioning of operations at the airports.

'Sufficient CISF manpower availability will be ensured round-the-clock. RWY 29L at @DelhiAirport has been made CAT III operational today. Operationalisation of RWY 10/28 as CAT III at Delhi Airport after re-carpeting will also be undertaken,' Scindia added in his post on X.

However, the minister’s tweet received a lot of backlash on X as irate citizens and flyers vented their ire on the micro-blogging site.

'You seem to get caught by the surprise element. There are numerous procedures and rules but on day 1 of the worst fog, the system collapses. Then on a war footing new procedures are made which will be forgotten next year and the same exercise will repeat. #Antifragility needed,' Amit Singh, an aviation expert, replied to Scindia’s tweet.

'Where is the SoP on @DGCAIndia website sir? Only a tweet — How as a passenger will I know my rights? When for donkey's years it is known that fog disrupts flights in December & January, why till date is there no mechanism?,' another X user asked the Union minister.

''War Rooms' are useless when passengers don't even have an airport authority they can file a complaint to and expect redressal. How many complaints against airlines have been acted upon by your Ministry?” one more X user responded to the minister's tweet.