The capital got its first real taste of fog at the fag end of winter with over 150 flights getting delayed on Wednesday.

“Eighteen flights were cancelled and only 39 flights operated in the morning,” said a Delhi airport official.

The hangover continued through the day with most flights, both to and from Delhi, running way behind schedule till late evening.

“It was one of the worst days for air traffic this season. Flight operations were hampered for a little over five hours,” an official said.

“There was no movement of flights between 6.30am and 9.30am as the runway visibility range dropped to a low of 75 metres and visibility to less than 50 metres,” another added. (Planes stranded at the airport on Wednesday in PTI picture above).

The visibility improved only after 11am.

“It was a bad day because we couldn’t use CAT III B facilities,” said a spokesperson from Kingfisher Airlines. “However, compared to other years, this has been much better.”

So far this winter, the weather has played spoilsport on only four days. On December 14, low-visibility procedures were in place for eight hours. On Christmas Day, operations were affected for over three hours.

Last year, fog had grounded flights for a whole day on January 1. The next day, low-visibility procedures were in place for 13 hours and the day after, for six-and-a-half hours.

Jet Airways cancelled two flights to Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday but because of the snowfall in the Valley.

“Flights to Leh, Srinagar and Jammu have been cancelled for the past two days because of bad weather there. We don’t want to take a chance,” said a Jet official.

Calcutta flights

Ten morning flights between Calcutta and Delhi were delayed by three hours on an average. Air India’s 7.30am flight from Calcutta took off at 10am.

Some other flights were delayed because of runway congestion in Delhi.

(Our correspondent and PTI)