Thick Smog Disrupts Flights In Delhi And Punjab As AQI Worsens

The thick smog and deteriorating air quality caused the flights in the Delhi-Amritsar route to be delayed or canceled on Tuesday and Wednesday, many flights of IndiGo were faced with such inconvenience. An IndiGo flight, scheduled to leave Amritsar for Delhi at 8 PM on Tuesday, was cancelled, whereas most of them were delayed for more than two hours due to low visibility. A Delhi-to-Amritsar flight, which was initially scheduled for 6 AM on Wednesday, took off after 8 AM.

IndiGo came out with a statement claiming that flights from and to Amritsar were disrupted due to “unsuitable weather conditions” and promised to update their passengers.

Critical Flight Cancellation due to Poor AQI

Other significant flight cancellation seen on the same day was that of a 8 PM flight from Delhi’s IGI Airport to Amritsar, as the weather was not good enough for clear visibility. Apart from this, a 5:45 AM flight at Delhi’s Terminal 3, scheduled to take off on Wednesday morning for Amritsar, had also been cancelled with a delay of two hours from the scheduled time.

Vice President’s travel was also affected

It also led to a travel delay of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar because hazardous air quality prevailed during his scheduled landing at the Halwara airport of Ludhiana. His plane could not land there with such poor visibility and had to divert to the Amritsar airport. He thereafter proceeded for another event in Madhya Pradesh, skipping his scheduled address at the Ludhiana conference.

Air Quality Emergency in Delhi and Punjab

Air quality index in both Punjab and Haryana has fallen to “very poor” levels while Delhi slipped into the “severe” and “hazardous” categories on Wednesday morning. The recurring problem of stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana after the paddy harvest often gets blamed for the deteriorating air quality in this part of the country, particularly in Delhi.

Read More : Delhi Air Pollution Crisis: Smog Reduces Visibility In NCR