Fog no flight dampener

Fog delays at Wellington Airport last month barely affected its growth in passenger numbers, Infratil said yesterday.

In an investor update, the utilities investor said that in spite of flights being cancelled and diverted for several days, international passenger numbers grew 15 per cent during March, helping push growth for the full year to 28.6 per cent.

The introduction of direct flights from Wellington to the Gold Coast and Fiji were behind the jump in international passengers.

Domestic travel fell by 3.7 per cent in March, but was up 3.8 per cent for the past 12 months.

Infratil owns 66 per cent of the airport, with the local city council owning the rest.