Departures at Delhi Airport were stopped for over two hours on Tuesday morning owing to heavy fog cover. The operations were stopped from 7.15 AM and it will take some time before the situation normalises, as per reports.

For safe departure of flights, clear visibility of 125 metres is needed. Since that wasn't the case, the operations were in stand-still for over two hours making life difficult for travellers. Today is Christmas, and many people are travelling to tourist spots to spend their holiday. But they had to face hardship owing to the heavy fog. The situation is likely to worsen in the coming days with fog cover getting heavier.

Arrivals though took place seamlessly as visibility of 50 metres is required for it.

PTI quoted an official saying since the Low Visibility Take Off (LVTO) requirement was not being fulfilled, departure of flights were on hold for two hours from around 0715 hours.

Departure of flights resumed at 0916 hours.

The Indira Gandhi International Airport is the busiest in the country and on an average sees more than 70 flight movements per hour. This includes both arrivals and departures.