Key takeaways
- Indore has rare dense-fog mornings of its own (100 m visibility on 4 Jan 2026, per Patrika); most winter delays arrive second-hand from Delhi and other northern hubs.
- The DGCA fog season, as reported, runs 10 December to 10 February; any flight that touches Delhi, Jaipur or Lucknow earlier in its day carries fog risk even when Indore is clear.
- On 7 Jan 2026, 8 Indore flights were cancelled and 12 delayed while Indore's own weather stayed clear (Free Press Journal).
- Under DGCA CAR Section 3 Series M Part IV, weather is usually treated as beyond the airline's control: expect meals and a refund or rebooking, not cash compensation.
- Book an 11 am-4 pm arrival, avoid first-wave Delhi departures, and keep Mahakaleshwar darshan for the morning after you land.
Indore airport fog delays happen in two ways. Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Airport in Indore has occasional dense-fog mornings of its own (100 m visibility on 4 January 2026), but most winter disruption reaches Indore second-hand from Delhi during the DGCA fog window of 10 December to 10 February. Book a midday arrival and keep Mahakaleshwar Temple darshan for the next morning.
This guide is for pilgrims flying into Indore for Ujjain between December and February. It separates Indore's own low-visibility mornings from the knock-on delays that start at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, logs what happened in winter 2025-26 with dates and sources, summarises what the Directorate General of Civil Aviation rules provide when a flight is late or cancelled, and turns that into timing rules for a darshan trip. One caveat first: no public fog-day count or percentage exists for Indore, so this page quotes dated incidents rather than statistics.
Indore airport fog delays: does Indore itself get fog?
Yes, but far less often than Delhi, Lucknow or Jaipur. In a typical winter Indore's mornings are cool and clear, and fog becomes a problem only when a weather system settles over the city, as Patrika described in January 2026. The effect is sharp but short: a few hours of poor visibility after sunrise, then a normal afternoon.
Indore's own low-visibility mornings
The clearest recent example is the weekend of 3-4 January 2026. Patrika reported on 5 January that a fresh weather system brought biting cold and dense fog, visibility at Indore airport dropped to 100 m on Sunday morning, and flights ran one to four hours late: 41 flights were affected on Saturday and 35 on Sunday. A Jabalpur flight was 3.5 hours late, a Pune arrival 3 hours late, and the early Jaipur, Mumbai and Raipur departures, normally out between 6:35 and 6:55 am, left between 6:55 and 7:05 am (Jaipur half an hour late). One Air India Express flight to Delhi was cancelled. Indore's temperature that day was 22.3 C maximum and 11.8 C minimum.
Fog at Indore itself is not new. On 1 January 2020, WION reported that fog at Indore delayed IndiGo 6E 6013 to Delhi by 50 minutes, 6E 655 to Mumbai by 2 hours and AirAsia I5 753 to Delhi by 1 hour 45 minutes. That was an isolated morning, not a season, which is why no fog-day statistics exist for Indore.
Delays that arrive from Delhi and the north
The second mechanism is more common and easy to miss when the Indore forecast shows sunshine. Many Indore flights are a later sector of an aircraft that started its day in Delhi or Jaipur. If that aircraft cannot take off from a fogbound Indira Gandhi International Airport at 6 am, your 9 am Indore arrival slides too, and a crew that has run out of duty hours can turn a delay into a cancellation.
The Free Press Journal's report of 8 January 2026 shows this in detail. On 7 January, 8 flights to or from Indore were cancelled and 12 were delayed by one to four hours, caused by bad weather in other cities and an IndiGo crew shortage. The cancellations included the Delhi arrival due at 7 am and the 7:40 am Delhi departure, plus Nagpur, Chennai and an Indore-Udaipur service hit by Jaipur weather. Delays spread across Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Bhubaneswar, Jabalpur and Jammu flights. The airport's own statement was that the weather in Indore remained clear and no flight was affected by fog at the city airport.
The DGCA fog season and what airlines do
Before planning around any of this, read the Indore airport guide for Ujjain pilgrims for terminal layout, transfer options and the normal arrival routine; this page only adds the winter layer.
10 December to 10 February
As reported by Travel Trade Journal and ETV Bharat on 9 December 2025, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation designated 10 December 2025 to 10 February 2026 as the fog season for Indian aviation. Airlines build their winter schedules, crew rosters and contingency plans around this window, and northern hubs expect low-visibility operations through most of it. For an Indore flyer the practical meaning is simple: from the second week of December to the second week of February, any flight that touches Delhi, Jaipur or another northern hub earlier in its day carries a fog risk even when Indore is clear.
CAT III B crews and Fog Care
The same reports describe Air India's fog-season plan: rostering CAT III B qualified crews trained on the Instrument Landing System at fog-prone stations, with Delhi named as the hub, and positioning CAT III B capable aircraft on routes most likely to meet low visibility. CAT III B is the landing category that allows an aircraft to land in very low visibility, provided both the aircraft and the crew are certified for it and the airport's ground equipment supports it. Whether Indore's own runway equipment supports any CAT III category is not stated in these reports, so this page does not claim it.
Air India's Fog Care policy, as reported in December 2025, offers passengers on affected flights complimentary rescheduling or a full refund without penalty. For IndiGo and Air India Express, check the airline's own app or website for any winter advisory on the day, because these are airline policies rather than regulatory entitlements and their terms change each season.
What happened in winter 2025-26: a dated log
The table below lists only incidents with a dated, named source. It is not a complete record of the season; it shows the pattern that matters for planning, which is that Indore's own fog mornings are rare while hub-driven delays recur.
| Date | Where the fog or weather was | Effect on Indore flights | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Dec 2025 | Delhi (visibility about 125 m), also Jammu, Kolkata, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Goa | Delays, diversions and cancellations across the north; an Air India Express Goa-Delhi flight diverted to Ahmedabad after failing to land at Delhi or Jaipur. Indore not mentioned. | National Herald, 29 Dec 2025 |
| 3-4 Jan 2026 | Indore itself (100 m visibility on Sunday morning, new weather system) | 41 flights affected Saturday, 35 Sunday, delays of 1-4 h; Jabalpur 3.5 h, Pune arrival 3 h, Jaipur half an hour late, Raipur six minutes late, Mumbai on time; one Air India Express Delhi flight cancelled | Patrika, 5 Jan 2026 |
| 7 Jan 2026 | Delhi and Jaipur (bad weather) plus IndiGo crew shortage; Indore clear | 8 cancelled (Delhi 7 am arrival and 7:40 am departure, Nagpur, Chennai, Indore-Udaipur) and 12 delayed 1-4 h (Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Bhubaneswar, Jabalpur, Jammu) | Free Press Journal, 8 Jan 2026 |
| 1 Jan 2020 (earlier year) | Indore itself | IndiGo 6E 6013 to Delhi 50 min late, 6E 655 to Mumbai 2 h late, AirAsia I5 753 to Delhi 1 h 45 min late | WION, 1 Jan 2020 |
Read the two January 2026 rows together. On the weekend Indore itself fogged in, delays were long but the schedule largely held. Three days later, with clear skies over Indore, the morning Delhi pair was cancelled outright. For a pilgrim, the second case is the dangerous one, because nothing in the Indore forecast warned of it. The full Patrika account of the 100 m weekend is at patrika.com (5 January 2026).
Your rights when a fog delay or cancellation hits
Passenger entitlements in India come from the DGCA's Civil Aviation Requirements Section 3 Series M Part IV (Revision 4, effective 15 February 2023). The summary below is drawn from secondary explainers of that CAR, chiefly the International Bar Association's 9 February 2026 note on IndiGo disruptions and Wego's 2026 passenger-rights guide; the CAR text itself is the authority, and the exact wording of each clause should be checked there before you quote it to an airline.
| Situation | What the CAR provides (as summarised) | Weather caveat and what to ask the airline |
|---|---|---|
| Delay of more than 2 hours | Meals and refreshments, tiered by the flight's block time | Airlines generally offer this even in weather delays; ask at the gate rather than waiting |
| Delay of more than 6 hours, or a delay that runs overnight | Hotel accommodation and transfers, or the option of a refund or rebooking | For fog, airlines often lean on the extraordinary-circumstances clause; still ask for a hotel or a free rebooking, and quote any Fog Care-type policy |
| Cancellation with short notice (within two weeks of departure) | Refund or an alternate flight, plus compensation reported at Rs 5,000, 7,500 or 10,000 depending on block time | Weather is listed among the extraordinary circumstances beyond the airline's control, so the cash compensation usually does not apply to fog; the refund or alternate flight still should |
| Any disruption | Airline must inform passengers and offer the choices above | Keep the SMS or email notice and your boarding pass, and raise the claim with the airline in writing |
Delay over 2 hours
Meals are the entitlement most often honoured in fog season because they cost the airline little. The IBA note points out that airlines claiming force majeure must still show the circumstances were genuinely unforeseeable, which is why it is worth asking even when the stated cause is weather.
Delay over 6 hours or overnight
This is where the weather exemption bites. If a fogbound aircraft means you will not leave until the next morning, the CAR summaries say the airline should offer a hotel or a refund, but airlines commonly treat fog as beyond their control and offer rebooking instead. Accept rebooking only after checking the new arrival time against your darshan plan; a refund and a fresh booking on a different route is sometimes faster.
Cancellation
Do not expect the Rs 5,000-10,000 compensation for a fog cancellation; the sources agree weather falls under the exemption. Do expect a refund or an alternate flight. Air India's Fog Care, as reported, formalises that choice as free rescheduling or a full refund. For IndiGo and Air India Express, check the airline's own disruption page on the day.
Timing a winter flight for Mahakaleshwar darshan
Every rule here follows from the two mechanisms above: Indore's own fog clears by late morning, while Delhi's fog can hold aircraft until noon and cascade through the afternoon. Plan for both.
Which arrival slots to prefer
- Prefer an arrival between about 11 am and 4 pm. It is past Indore's own fog risk, and a Delhi-origin aircraft has had time to recover from a late start.
- Avoid the first-wave Delhi departures. The cancelled 7 am Delhi arrival on 7 January 2026 is the pattern to avoid: the aircraft has to leave Delhi before the fog lifts.
- If you must fly early, choose an origin outside the northern fog belt. In both January 2026 reports, the long delays and cancellations were on Delhi, Jaipur, Jabalpur and Jammu services, while the early Mumbai departure on 4 January left on time and Raipur six minutes late. Treat this as a tendency, not a rule: the same morning a Pune arrival was 3 hours late.
- Give yourself a full night in Ujjain before darshan. Fly in on day one, sleep, visit Mahakaleshwar Temple on the morning of day two. A fog delay of four hours then costs you nothing but an afternoon.
- Book a transfer that tracks your actual landing time rather than a fixed pick-up. A driver from Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Airport who left at your scheduled time will not wait three hours. The night arrival guide covers what to do if the delay pushes you past 10 pm.
Plan B if your morning slot is lost
If the morning flight is cancelled, do three things in order. First, take the airline's alternate flight only if it lands by mid-afternoon; otherwise take the refund and search the same day for a connection through a western or southern city rather than Delhi. Second, move darshan to the following morning rather than trying to reach the temple at night after a long day. Third, if a Bhasma Aarti permit was tied to the lost morning, note that it is a separate booking with its own rules and a missed slot is not transferable through the airline. Our guide to the best time to book flights to Indore explains how far ahead to book winter dates so that a change costs less.
Landing late because of fog? Get a quote for an Indore airport to Ujjain transfer that waits for your actual arrival: use the contact page or call +91 83190 07059.
Frequently asked questions
Is fog common at Indore airport?
No. Indore has occasional dense-fog mornings rather than a fog season. The clearest recent case was 4 January 2026, when Patrika reported visibility of 100 m and 35 flights delayed by one to four hours. No public count of fog days exists for Indore, so treat it as a rare but real risk.
Which flights to Indore are most affected by fog?
Flights whose aircraft starts the day at a northern hub. In the January 2026 reports the long delays and cancellations were on Delhi, Jaipur, Jabalpur and Jammu services, and on 7 January 2026 eight flights were cancelled while Indore itself stayed clear. Early-morning Delhi departures are the most exposed.
Will I get compensation for a fog delay?
Usually not the cash compensation. Under DGCA CAR Section 3 Series M Part IV, as summarised by the IBA and Wego, weather counts among the extraordinary circumstances beyond an airline's control, so the Rs 5,000-10,000 cancellation compensation generally does not apply. You should still be offered meals after 2 hours and a refund or alternate flight if the flight is cancelled; ask the airline.
Should I fly into Indore in the morning or evening in winter?
Midday to mid-afternoon. An arrival between about 11 am and 4 pm is past Indore's own fog window and gives a Delhi-origin aircraft time to recover. Avoid first-wave departures from Delhi before 8 am, and plan darshan for the morning after you land.
What if my flight is cancelled the night before Bhasma Aarti?
Take the alternate flight only if it lands by mid-afternoon; otherwise take the refund and rebook through a city outside the northern fog belt. Bhasma Aarti is a separate booking with its own rules, so a missed slot cannot be moved through the airline. Shift your temple visit to the next morning and arrange a transfer that waits for your actual landing time.
Planning your Ujjain trip?
Get a quoteWritten and reviewed by the Fly to Ujjain editorial team. Facts checked against primary sources; see the reference above.