DEL doesn’t manage so great when the flight crew can’t make it to the airport due to the situation on the ground with ground transport.

The smog pollution at this time of year in DEL can be solved by the Union government making Haryana and UP into Union territories and having the central government ban whatever the government wants to ban in order to improve air quality fast. But they won’t do it, and so this bad air quality and all it means for travelers and flight crews will continue for years to come unless and until the Indian courts intervene in a way that would probably displease various elected officials.

Are flight crews and their unions making calls to avoid flying to/from DEL during such bad air quality periods? Protecting the health of their members is a rather fundamental interest of the airline employee unions.