Passengers stranded in Sharjah as fog delays flights

Sharjah: Heavy fog affected around 24 flights on Friday morning, delaying the planes arrivals or departures to and from Sharjah Airport.

The situation at the Sharjah Airport was chaotic with the airport crammed with people and phone lines continuously busy as people frantically called to check the flight situation.

"The airport was jammed with people and we had a lot of inquiries," said an airport staffer.

An official at the airport said 12 arriving flights as well as another 12 departing flights were delayed, starting around midnight due to heavy fog.

But the situation returned to normal just near dawn as the visibility cleared. However, only one flight going to Khartoum, Sudan, was cancelled.

Destinations

According to the spokesperson, most of the delayed flights were heading to Hyderabad, India; Peshawar, Pakistan; Bombay, India; Kuwait; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Khartoum, Sudan; Shiraz, Iran; and Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

"My flight to Hyderabad was supposed to leave at 12:05am but we were informed it will be delayed till 2am." a frustrated passenger on an Air Arabia flight told Gulf News.

"After waiting for two hours we were again told the flight will be delayed for another two hours. An announcement was finally made at around 4am saying the flight was cancelled and passengers were being moved to a flight leaving at 1pm, the passenger added.

Gulf News learnt that the flight finally left around 2pm - a 14-hour delay.

Flights in other airports in the emirates were not as badly affected, with Dubai recording delay for just one flight. One Abu Dhabi incoming flight was divert ed back to Doha.

Other airports

An Emirates flight to Lahore, Pakistan, was delayed at Dubai Airport because of weather conditions in Lahore and was forced to land in Karachi instead, said a spokesperson from Dubai Airport.

In Abu Dhabi, although there was a low visibility at around 3am all flight operations went smoothly with the exception of the Qatar Airways flight diverted back to Doha.