More than 70 flights cancelled as heavy fog blankets North Island centres

More than 70 flights in and out of Auckland Airport have been cancelled due to poor weather, with some airline customers being offered road transport due to the disruption.

Thick fog and cloud shrouded much of the country this morning, causing significant disruption to regional turbo-prob services across Air New Zealand's network.

Flight restrictions at Auckland Airport were lifted at 10.30am, but scheduled flights are still likely to be affected this afternoon due to dozens of earlier cancellations and delays.

By 10.20am 56 domestic regional flights had been cancelled and 22 delayed, the airport said.

International flights, and domestic flights to Christchurch, Dunedin and Queenstown had not been affected.

One Wellington departure and one Christchurch departure had been delayed.

Cancellation details are available on the airport website.

Poor weather was expected to stick around until at least lunchtime in the central and upper North Island and parts of the South Island, Air New Zealand warned.

Auckland, Tauranga, Rotorua, Hamilton, Whangarei, Kerikeri, Nelson and Queenstown were all affected, with flow-on impacts across the wider domestic network.

The backlog from this morning's cancelled and delayed flights meant scheduled flights later today would also be affected.

Disrupted customers were being offered road transportation options where possible.

Jet services were operating largely as normal but there were some delays in and out of Auckland this morning – with some flow on impact to the network.

Customers were asked to use online services and avoid calling the contact centre if possible as it was dealing with a high volume of phone calls.

Aucklanders awoke to another blanket of heavy fog, prompting warnings to motorists and cancelling flights for the second day in a row.

A Niwa time-lapse camera captured the thick fog rolling in before sunrise this morning.

Motorists were warned to expect poor visibility and allow extra time to travel this morning.

Once the fog lifts the city is expected to get sunshine, with a high of 16C and a low of 9C. A westerly wind is likely to move the fog away.

READ MORE:
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• Auckland Airport and fog flight woes: What you need to know

Weatherwatch said the upper North Island would get a mixture of sun and cloud today, with a chance of an isolated shower or two.

The lower western North Island would be cloudy with the odd shower, while it would stay dry on the east coast.

The South Island's West Coast would have patchy rain this morning but the east would be sunny.

Today's weather

Whangārei:

Increasing fine spells. Light winds. High 18C, Low 9C.

Auckland: Fine spells and isolated showers, with some early fog patches. Light winds. High 17C, Low 9C

Hamilton: Morning fog, and a chance shower until evening. Light winds.High 16C, Low 6C.

Tauranga: Fine. Light winds. High 16C, Low 7C

Rotorua: Fine after morning cloud or fog clearing. Light winds. High 13C, Low 5C

New Plymouth: Cloudy periods and a few showers. Westerlies gradually tending northerly. High 15C, Low 10C

Napier: Fine. Northwesterlies, dying out this afternoon. High 18C, Low 7C

Whanganui: Cloudy periods, possible shower. Northwesterlies. High 16C, Low 9C

Wellington: Fine with northwesterlies. High 14C, Low 10C

Nelson: Some morning cloud, otherwise fine. Winds becoming light. High 14C, Low 3C

Christchurch: Some morning cloud otherwise fine. Light winds. High 13C, Low 0C

Dunedin: Fine apart from cloud morning and night. Southwesterlies dying out in the morning. High 13C, Low 6C