vcclt

First week of december--I am travelling to Delhi from Ahmedabad arriving around 10 om..I know in winter usually fog affects Delhi operations..

-Is first week of december usually when the fog starts affecting the operations or it's little later in December
-Does it effect domestic flights in the early hours of morning..
-Does it affect international flights arriving into Delhi at night...

Yor insight is appreciated

vcclt

Keyser

you can definitely expect fog in early december....it is usually at it's worst during early morning....

Keyser

it's the morning & evening flights that get delayed....the afternoon flights normally run on schedule....

mrwunrfl

I have a 9AM flight out of DEL on January 3. I understand that there may be fog. How would you rate my chances of an on-time departure?

Keyser

its already pretty foggy in the mornings & it will be much worse around your travel date....i would be surprised if you had an on-time departure....its always advisable to take an afternoon flight during fog season....

mrwunrfl

Thanks. My only option on Qatar Airways is the earlier flight, at 04:25. Would that option be any better?

Keyser

unlikely....i usually try to avoid flights between 7pm - 10am during fog season....

oliver2002

So widebody arrivals are OK thanks to Cat IIIb? But domestic A32S departures better taken after 10-11am?

SpeedFreak

Landing requires 75m visibility but take off's require about 125m and you would be surprised by how long visibility hovers around 75m. The older runway has better visibility than the newer one. There are 2-3 days when nothin moves in the airport till late morning but otherwise operations continue although with a little bit of delay.

And a later flight during the day may not always be on time as that same aircraft generally does a morning turn and then only the next one.

GUWonder

Arrivals seem to be less of an issue for me than departures, domestic or even long-haul international.

Domestic departures, I push for post-11 am for mid-December to mid- or late January.

oliver2002

Soo... if you are booked on a 13:20 flight and happened to checkin after arriving on a 7:40 intl arrival and the AI flight leaving at 7am is badly delayed, will AI take you on the earlier flight if you are booked in a decent booking class (B)?

Thunderroad

My wife and I might be visiting Delhi in mid-February. I realize there are no guarantees, but how bad is the smog likely to be in Delhi then? And the fog - present in the evening and morniing, and burning off in the middle of the day?

Also, what will the weather be like? I get a bit of conflicting information from the weather/climate sites I've checked. Am I correct in assuming that it will be dry (except for the fog) in mid-February, with highs about 20-25 Celsius and lows about 10-15?

We might take a day trip from Delhi to Agra at that time. Might the fog (or smog) be so bad in the early morning on the drive down (we wouldn't drive ourselves, but would instead have a driver) that it would interfere with our even getting there? I took that drive once around 2000 and it was definitely on the difficult side for the driver, though I realize the roads have improved since then and I can't recall the exact time of year it was.

Finally, how bad might the smog or fog be in Agra that time of year?

Thanks for any advice.

GUWonder

Fog is not as bad in February as in late December and much of January. And if it's trips during the day, not likely to be a major issue. By 8 am in February, fog is not the kind of issue it is in December and January.

The smog seems to hit me worse there in October and November and in March and April than in late December to mid-February, but I'm not sure why that is or if that smog conditions are generally worse then or if it's more a matter of localized geography's interplay with sources of pollution.

Keyser

mid feb will be fine both in delhi & agra....

weather wise, expect it to be around 28-30 during the day & around 18-20 in the evenings & early mornings....

Thunderroad

Thanks very much, folks. I appreciate the info.