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Hanoi Flights Halted as City Faces Worsening Air Pollution 

A man fishes at a lake on a foggy morning in Hanoi on February 2, 2024. (AFP)
A man fishes at a lake on a foggy morning in Hanoi on February 2, 2024. (AFP)
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Hanoi Flights Halted as City Faces Worsening Air Pollution 

A man fishes at a lake on a foggy morning in Hanoi on February 2, 2024. (AFP)
A man fishes at a lake on a foggy morning in Hanoi on February 2, 2024. (AFP)

All flights to and from the international airport in Vietnam's capital Hanoi have been delayed or diverted to other cities on Friday due to heavy fog and worsening air pollution, said an airport official.

Air Visual, an independent online air quality index monitor, said Hanoi's levels of hazardous small particles known as PM2.5 in the air were at an extreme high of 257 micrograms per cubic meter early on Friday.

"All incoming flights are being diverted to other cities, including Haiphong or Danang. None can take off either at the moment," an official at Noi Bai International Airport said, declining to be named.

Nearly 100 flights to and from the airport have been affected, state media reported, citing the airport authorities.

Vietnam's budget airline Vietjet on Friday said several of its flights scheduled to land in Hanoi had been diverted to land in Haiphong City.

Air pollution in Hanoi has constantly been ranked among the world's highest, with health authorities last month advising people to wear masks and limit outdoor activities.

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Delhi Bans Old Cars from Refueling to Help Tackle Pollution

Traffic passes by flowers in bloom at a roundabout in New Delhi, India, 25 February 2025. EPA/HARISH TYAGI
Traffic passes by flowers in bloom at a roundabout in New Delhi, India, 25 February 2025. EPA/HARISH TYAGI
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Delhi Bans Old Cars from Refueling to Help Tackle Pollution

Traffic passes by flowers in bloom at a roundabout in New Delhi, India, 25 February 2025. EPA/HARISH TYAGI
Traffic passes by flowers in bloom at a roundabout in New Delhi, India, 25 February 2025. EPA/HARISH TYAGI

Cars more than 15 years old will soon be barred from refueling in New Delhi, the city's government said Saturday, as part of measures to reduce the Indian capital's hazardous pollution levels.

New Delhi is regularly ranked as one of the most polluted cities in the world and is blanketed in acrid smog each year.

The pollution is primarily blamed on agricultural burning by nearby farmers to clear their fields for ploughing, as well as factories and traffic fumes, AFP reported.

Cooler temperatures and slow-moving winds worsen the situation by trapping deadly pollutants each winter.

Diesel and petrol cars older than 10 and 15 years respectively are not allowed to ply on Delhi roads but many have been found flouting the rules.

Delhi's environment minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa told reporters Saturday that the decision to stop fuel for the old cars was made at a "marathon meeting" on air pollution to "find out the diseases and its remedies".

"We have decided to stop giving fuel to vehicles more than 15 years old after March 31, 2025," he said.

He said "gadgets" would be installed at petrol pumps to identify such vehicles.

Sirsa said other decisions taken include turning barren land into "new forests" and getting university students involved in planting.

He also said the government would make it mandatory for high rises, hotels and Delhi airport to install anti-smog guns and gadgets to control pollution.

The public health crisis has grown steadily worse over the years and weeks-long school closures across the capital, aimed at shielding vulnerable children from the harmful air, are now an annual occurrence.

At the peak of the smog, levels of PM2.5 pollutants -- dangerous cancer-causing microparticles small enough to enter the bloodstream through the lungs -- surged to more than 60 times the World Health Organization's recommended daily maximum.

Piecemeal government initiatives, such as partial restrictions on fossil fuel-powered transport and water trucks spraying mist to clear particulate matter from the air, have failed to make a noticeable impact.