January 22, 2026

Delhi Airport Chaos: Why Were The Authorities Not Proactive?

By Our Editorial Team
First publised on 2024-01-17 07:05:29

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Why do most corrective actions in India happen ex post facto? Why can't the authorities plan in advance for something that is sure to happen?

We are referring to the chaos at Delhi airport due to flight delays and cancellations because of the dense fog that has, like previous years, enveloped Delhi airport. The fog situation is not new. It happens every year. With the aviation sector experiencing a boom last year which has carried on in 2024, more people are flying than ever before. This was also known to the authorities. Yet, there was no planning to avoid situations in which passengers were left to their own devices even as flights got delayed for more than 13 to 15 hours and many of them were cancelled.

It took an unruly passenger who slapped a co-pilot (an act than cannot be condoned and he needs to be punished as per law) aboard an Indigo flight as the latter was making an announcement about further delay (the flight had already been delayed for more than 10 hours and the passengers were kept waiting in the aircraft for more than two hours) to force the authorities to spring into action. The aviation ministry announced new SOPs and asked airlines to cancel flights that were likely to be delayed over three hours, among other measures.

It is true that the fog situation and the associated delays are beyond the control of the airlines. But the least they can do is to inform passengers about the delays in advance and cancel flights instead of keeping them waiting, with senior citizens and children, interminably at airports and even inside aircrafts. They can also keep profit considerations aside in such situations and provide passengers with refreshments if flights are delayed beyond three hours.

The ministry, DGCA and the AAI must look at improving infrastructure, not only for such situations (one of Delhi's two low-visibility runways was not operational) but also to cater to the expected growth in passenger traffic. It was expected that both the low-visibility runways in Delhi were made operational before the winter to avoid the chaos. The inaction of the authorities in this regard has thrown flight schedules out of gear and left flyers fuming.