Flights to and from Calcutta were disrupted for the second consecutive day on Friday because of fog.
More than 25 flights were delayed and seven inbound flights were diverted, said an official at the airport. A few flights were also cancelled. Flight operations were stalled from 4.02am to 8.16am.
On Thursday, more than 60 flights were delayed and a dozen diverted as the airport was enveloped in dense fog.
On Friday, visibility had been dropping since 2.10am. The Calcutta airport has the Category IIIB instrument landing system which allows flights to operate at a minimum visibility of 50m.
“Flights could operate between 2.10am and 4.02am despite low visibility. Then it dropped below 50m,” the official said. “Visibility improved at 6.51am only to drop again at 6.53am.”
A combination of moisture, clouds and light wind contributed to the dense fog.
“The moisture is being provided by an anticyclonic flow of winds from the Bay of Bengal. Moisture-laden winds are dominating the lower levels of the atmosphere,” said a Met department official.
The situation is likely to improve on Saturday.
“The anticyclonic system is likely to shift. If it happens, moisture incursion will dip. The cold and dry northwesterly winds are likely to return. Fog will still be there but not as dense as on Thursday or Friday,” the Met official said.
Though flight operations resumed after 8.16am, the cascading effect continued for hours.
Dattatreya Ghosh from Barrackpore was supposed to take an IndiGo flight to Raipur, which was to take off at 2.15pm.
“The flight was cancelled because of fog. My son needs to go to attend a seminar. So he took a flight with a stopover in Hyderabad,” said Nilanjan Ghosh, Dattatreya’s father.
New Town resident Barun Roy was booked on a flight to Bagdogra that was to leave at 12.55pm. The flight was delayed, said his mother Dipannita.
A north Calcutta resident whose IndiGo flight to Ahmedabad was cancelled on Thursday could finally go on Friday, but the flight was delayed by an hour.
The IndiGo flight was to take off at 12.50pm but it left at 1.50pm, said the woman, who was going to Ahmedabad to watch a Coldplay concert with her two children. Her children went on an evening flight on Thursday.