Fog plays havoc with air travellers
Flights cancelled, rerouted or delayed in poor conditions
It was a miserable start to 2017 for hundreds of airline passengers who faced hours of delays in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi as the knock-on effect of New Year weather disruptions continue to be felt.
Flights in and out of the UAE were either delayed, rerouted or cancelled as early morning fog and reduced flying visibility crippled airlines.
Flydubai was forced to cancel more than 70 flights, keeping an updated list on its Facebook page, while about 80 flights arriving at Abu Dhabi airport were delayed.
The low- cost Dubai carrier, which operates about 1,700 flights a week, did not rule out more cancellations as it battles to get operations back up to speed.
Despite regular updates online, many flydubai passengers reacted angrily as New Year plans had to be scrapped.
Julia Grebniova, who lives in Abu Dhabi but was stranded in Dubai, wrote on Facebook: “Hundreds of passengers, a lot of them with kids, are stuck in the airport without any further information about their flights, exhausted and cannot go home. There is no staff in the terminal and nobody answers calls. Ridiculous.”
Another passenger, Juliana July, said: “Early morning fog is not an unusual occurrence at this time of year in Dubai. This is one of the most appalling travel episodes I have ever had to experience.”
Julia Moore, from Oxfordshire, England, emailed flydubai after being stranded for eight hours with two children when flight FZ025 was cancelled.
“We have had to leave the airport due to the needs of our young children and are so disappointed,” she said.
Those affected were asked to contact their travel agent or the flydubai customer centre to rebook seats on the next available flight. Those choosing to scrap plans altogether were offered a full refund.
“The safety of our passengers and crew remains our first priority as we continue to monitor the situation closely and follow the advice of the relevant authorities,” said a flydubai spokesman. “Although the cause of the disruption is beyond our control, we are deploying all resources available to us to minimise the impact of these severe weather conditions on our schedules.” Poor weather conditions have plagued the region since Wednesday morning and are expected to continue over the next few days, according to the national weather bureau. Heavy fog caused reduced visibility, below 100 metres in places, which has had a significant effect on operations at both Dubai International and Al Maktoum International.
Abu Dhabi Airports confirmed three flights were diverted to re- gional airports at the request of the concerned airlines.
Two of the diversions were because the pilots were not certified to land in such conditions and one to a technical issue.
Other airlines also suffered delays.
Emirates flights arriving early yesterday were delayed by about two hours, while hundreds of Qantas passengers were stranded in Dubai en-route to Australia after engineers were called in to work on the scheduled A380 aircraft.
Many were forced to stay overnight in hotels.
The UAE’s National Centre of Meteorology and Seismology issued a fog warning on Saturday morning due to high humidity and falling temperatures.
Morning fog is likely to continue into today.
Drivers are being warned to take extra care on the roads, and airline travellers encouraged to check on delays before heading to airports.
A Dubai Airports spokesman said that as a result of relatively improved weather conditions overnight and yesterday morning, no flights were diverted or cancelled at Dubai International.
“Operations at DXB, however, continue to be in recovery mode with Dubai Airports focusing on clearing the backlog of flights disrupted due to weather conditions persisting since December 28.”