December 28, 2008	Sunday	Zilhaj 29, 1429

KARACHI, Dec 27: Flight operation at the Karachi airport was disrupted on Saturday as almost every local or international airline was compelled to delay or cancel their domestic and international flights due to foggy weather.

Fog enveloped the metropolis in the early hours of Saturday, reducing ground visibility to less than 400 metres.

This forced the authorities to reschedule all air traffic coming into Karachi.

As many as seven flights coming from the Gulf states were diverted (including six Pakistan International Airlines flights and one Airblue flight).

Each of the flights was scheduled to arrive between Friday night and Saturday morning. They eventually arrived by Saturday afternoon.

Airport authorities also encountered difficulties in catering to a large number of passengers who arrived at the airport for departing flights. Relatives of arriving passengers were also inconvenienced by the delays.

A PIA spokesman told Dawn that besides the six international flights which were diverted to Muscat, the national carrier also rescheduled 10 domestic and international flights on Saturday due to the fog.

A representative of Airblue told Dawn that the fog affected three Airblue flights, and caused the airline to cancel one Lahore-bound flight.

Sources say several flights from Karachi to Lahore could not take off as fog had also enveloped the Allama Iqbal International airport, forcing it to shut down temporarily.

Other airlines to be hit by the delay include Emirates and Shaheen Air. The Met office has forecast more fog for Sunday.