Fog and low cloud caused Hawke's Bay Airport to be closed just after 8am today stranding about 150 travellers by mid-morning, with the airport still closed.
The airport was closed after the first arrival flight from Auckland was diverted to Palmerston North.
One man waiting to board the scheduled 8.05 return flight to Auckland said it appeared the pilot
made two passes toward the fog-shrouded airport before diverting.
``It doesn't look too good - I'll drive up there if I have to,'' he said.
An Air New Zealand announcement stated that all flights had been suspended ``until we can get some aircraft on the ground.''
People were advised to delay checking in and wait until further notice.
One man was seeing his son off to England and upon hearing his 9.50am flight was suspended said ``that's all we need.''
But like most of the waiting crowd, he accepted there was little they could do about the weather, except wait.
There had been 12 scheduled flights into Napier from Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, and 12 departures, for the day.
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