Travel and Tour World reported on 24 February 2026 that heavy fog at Dubai International cut runway visibility to 1.4 km, straining flight schedules on the high-volume India-UAE corridor. IndiGo, which operates more than 100 weekly frequencies to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, warned passengers to expect extended ground times and to check real-time updates before leaving for the airport. Meteorological data showed 100 percent humidity and early-morning temperatures around 18 °C, conditions that force air-traffic controllers to increase aircraft separation and stagger departures. Although the UAE’s hub airports are equipped with Category III ILS, prolonged low-visibility operations slow throughput and create knock-on delays in Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru, where aircraft and crew are held out of rotation. For Indian leisure and SME travellers, even short disruptions can upend hotel check-ins, cruise embarkations and onward connections to Europe and North America. Tour operators advised clients to pad itineraries with at least four hours of buffer time and to purchase change-flexible fares. The article notes that the India-UAE market—one of the world’s busiest—remains broadly resilient, with airports and airlines deploying recovery plans once conditions improve. Nonetheless, the episode serves as a timely reminder to travel buyers to map seasonal weather patterns into corporate-travel risk assessments. With bilateral traffic already above pre-pandemic levels and new capacity planned for summer 2026, stakeholders will watch whether recurrent winter fog prompts infrastructure upgrades such as additional high-speed exits or enhanced ground-movement radar.
Source: Travel and Tour World
