Potential for fog at Auckland Airport on Sat 5 May

Potential for fog at Auckland Airport on Saturday, 5 May

Auckland International Airport is urging travellers, meeters and those seeing people off to check before setting out tomorrow (Saturday) as the weather forecast suggests morning fog could again disrupt flights departing and arriving at the airport.

“Today several domestic and a couple of international flights were directly affected and we would like to pass on our thanks to travellers for their patience and commend all airport staff and border agencies for their professionalism in helping to process people as quickly as possible,” said airport chief executive, Don Huse.

“It should be noted that at 6.15am today the runway was clear but within 15 minutes the fog had moved in so these events can cause disruption at relatively short notice.”

“With that in mind and given that tomorrow’s weather forecast suggests similar disruption to schedules could be repeated we would urge all those travelling, meeting or farewelling people at the airport to check with their airline that things are running to time.

“Fog can be a highly localised phenomenon and conditions at Auckland airport could be quite different from where you set out.”

Mr Huse said fog generally affected the airport for some part of the day on around 12-16 days of the year with flights having to be diverted on anything from three to 11 of those days.

“Every effort is made to take advantage of breaks to enable aircraft to land or take off but public safety remains paramount. Today, the lack of wind also compounded the issue,” he added.

A new Category IIIB air navigation and lighting system is being progressively implemented from July 2007. This will enable aircraft to land during foggy conditions. It is expected to be fully operational by May 2008.”

Once in place, Auckland is expected to be the first airport in Australasia to have such a system.

Updated flight information is available on the Auckland International Airport website
www.auckland-airport.co.nz.

Meeters, greeters and those farewelling friends and relatives are also advised to check directly with the relevant airline.

ENDS

© Scoop Media