Patna, Dec. 2: If you wish to fly out of the capital, be careful about which flight you book your seat on. Air traffic has gone for a toss with the arrival of winter.

Passengers were either stranded or arrived late as thick fog enveloped the airport.

The director-general of civil aviation (DGCA) yesterday issued directives to airlines that flights operating to and from Patna would be allowed to land or take off only if the visibility was 2,500 metres.

Passengers of the special GoAir Haj Patna-Delhi flight were stranded at the Delhi airport. Scheduled to fly at night, it could take off only today.

The GoAir Patna-Delhi-Patna morning flight (GA 341/342) was cancelled as visibility fell below the minimum fixed by the DGCA.

A source in GoAir said: “We had to cancel the flight as it was not possible to fly it in the morning and its delayed departure would have delayed other flights of the airlines.”

The Air India morning flight on the Delhi-Patna-Delhi route (IC 409/410) also got thrown off schedule. It reached Patna at 12.30pm, more than four hours late.

The afternoon flight of GoAir (GA 343/344) on the Delhi-Patna-Delhi route was also delayed by an hour.

The Jet Airways morning flight (9W 2852/2853) on the Calcutta-Patna-Calcutta route also arrive an hour behind schedule. The airline’s Delhi-Patna-Delhi afternoon flight (9W 2287/2288) too got delayed by about half-an-hour and reached here at 12.55pm.

Flights coming in from other places were also delayed. IndiGo Bangalore-Calcutta-Patna flight 6E 341, which is scheduled to arrive in Patna at 10am could reach only at 12 noon.

But as the day progressed, the timings got became better.

The Air India afternoon flight (IC 407/408) operated on time. A source said the Air India evening flight was also operating on time and was expected to reach Patna at 7.30pm. An Air India official said: “Keeping in mind the visibility factor, we are planning to change the timings on the Delhi-Patna-Delhi route. The new schedule would be effective from December 7. The morning flight would arrive at 11.40am and would leave Delhi at 12.20pm. The afternoon flight that is now scheduled to come to Delhi would be cancelled, and the evening flight would be reaching Patna at 3.55pm. It would leave for Delhi at 4.30pm.” “The new timings would be effective till February 15,” the official added. Kingfisher has decided to prepone the schedule of its evening flight (IT 4579/4580) on the Calcutta-Patna-Calcutta route from December 3.

The flight would reach Patna at 7.30pm instead of 8.30pm and would leave for Calcutta at 8pm instead of 9pm. “This is an ad hoc arrangement to deal with the situation,” said an airlines official.

Another official, frustrated by the vagaries of the schedule, said: “The way things are going, flight will come and leave from Patna only for a few hours on winter afternoons.”