Low visibility hits air traffic in Valley for fifth day

Editor

The air traffic to and from the Kashmir valley remained disrupted for the fifth consecutive day today as low visibility forced the cancellation of 40 flights scheduled to arrive and depart from the region’s only airport here.
The visibility at the airport today was around 600 m, which was 700 m less than the 1.3 km visibility required for safe landings of passenger planes, said Sharad Kumar, Director of the Srinagar International Airport. He said the visibility on Monday was “worse” than the previous days.
The airport official said 20 incoming flights and 20 outgoing flights were cancelled today. “A total of 40 flights were cancelled,” Sharad Kumar said, adding that it was unlikely that the weather would improve tomorrow.
The Srinagar International Airport is the only civilian airport in the Kashmir valley and six passenger airlines operate flights from here.
The aerial connectivity with the Kashmir valley has been partially or fully suspended on all days since Thursday, when low visibility had first forced cancellation of 10 flights.
On Friday, when the visibility was 500 m less than the required 1.3 km, the low visibility had forced complete closure of the airport. Two flights could land and depart from the Srinagar airport on Saturday during a brief window in the afternoon when the visibility had temporarily improved and was completely closed on Sunday.
It was the first major shutdown of flight services at the airport in recent months as the region heads for a long winter.
An official at the Srinagar Meteorological Centre said the low visibility had been caused by increased level of smog and was likely to continue over next few days. “There is a forecast for rain and snow after November 24 (Thursday), which can improve the visibility,” Mukhtar Ahmad, Deputy Director of the Srinagar Meteorological Centre, said.
The meteorological centre said the weather in the city tomorrow was likely to remain cloudy with poor visibility.

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