Dubai: Early morning foggy weather conditions continued to disrupt airport operations in the UAE on Monday, with dozens of flights to and from Dubai reported to be delayed or cancelled on the second day of the New Year.
As of 8am, at least 28 incoming flights bound for Dubai International from India, New York, United Kingdom, Oman, Sri Lanka and Kuwait were expected to be delayed, according to Dubai Airports’ arrivals and departures tracker.
Flydubai also cancelled nine outgoing flights as of Monday, January 2. The airline had earlier cancelled 21 trips on New Year’s Eve. Today also happens to be one of the busiest times to travel back to Dubai, with the biggest volume of travelers returning to the UAE from the holidays expected to show up on January 2.
UAE-based carriers had warned that flight disruptions due to bad weather, which left hundreds of passengers stranded in the last few days in the UAE, were expected to continue today.
“Over the last four days, our operations at Dubai International and Al Maktoum International have been severely disrupted by dense fog occurring in the early hours of the morning, which has sometimes lasted until midday,” flydubai said in a statement.
“We are currently planning to operate to schedule [on January 2, but] fog is again forecast in the early hours of the morning, with visibility potentially reducing to below 100 metres). If this fog materialises, our operations will again be impacted.”
Flydubai flights that were cancelled on Monday were bound for Kuwait, Muscat, Kabul, Doha and Ha’il.
The first week of the year is one of the busiest times for airport operations, with Emirates Airlines expecting close to 250,000 passengers to pass through Terminal 3 and Emirates’ Concourses in the first three days of January.
The airline had said it is antiicpating the peak of passenger traffic to show up today. Travel agents told Gulf News that most of the passengers returning to the UAE today are flying from Asia, Europe and the United States.
