Overview
- IMD upgraded its warning from orange to red through Tuesday afternoon after visibility plunged to about 50 metres at IGI and Safdarjung before a brief improvement.
- At least 128 flights were cancelled, eight diverted and hundreds delayed on Monday, with Flightradar24 showing more than 150 delays again early Tuesday despite improving visibility.
- Delhi’s 24‑hour AQI hit 401 on Monday in the ‘severe’ band, then eased to the higher end of ‘very poor’ Tuesday morning as several hotspots such as Wazirpur, Rohini and Anand Vihar stayed above 450.
- Airlines including IndiGo, Air India and SpiceJet issued advisories urging passengers to check schedules as CAT III low‑visibility operations continued at the airport.
- Official forecasts point to ‘very poor’ air on Tuesday and Wednesday with a likely return to ‘severe’ by January 1, and December’s average AQI is tracking as the worst since 2018.