Fog forces flights to be diverted

Rangitoto Island rises above the fog in this photo taken from the top floor of a Herne Bay apartment building. Picture / David Cowie

Fog at Auckland Airport yesterday morning delayed domestic travellers and forced nine international flights to be diverted.

Domestic departures and arrivals were suspended for about three hours until the fog cleared around 11am.

Some flights were cancelled and it took at least seven hours to clear the backlog of passengers on the first day of the school holidays.

Airport chief executive Don Huse said eight of the international flights were diverted to Wellington and Christchurch airports and one to Nadi Airport in Fiji.

Three other international flights were delayed.

"We get days like this about three or four times a year."

Mr Huse said he did not know the exact number of travellers affected by the fog because airlines collected those details individually.

"The terminals were busy but there was a sense that the fog would clear quite quickly because it was such a nice day."