KARACHI, Nov 10: Over 38 incoming and outgoing flights, including 18 international ones, were delayed as a thick blanket of fog on Thursday morning covered the city and reduced the visibility to about 50 meters.

The Met Office said the dense fog started affecting visibility at 2:45am in and lasted for more than six hours and started vanishing at 9:30am. The visibility became normal by noon.

The maximum temperature was recorded at 32.5 degrees Celsius with 44 per cent of humidity in the air during the day, the officials said and added that during the fog, the humidity was 100 per cent.

Officials in the Met office forecast another foggy day on Friday with maximum temperature ranging between 32 and 35 degrees Celsius in the city.

Sources at the Quaid-i-Azam International Airport told Dawn that over 38 incoming and outgoing flights, including 18 international flights, were delayed in the morning due to heavy fog that enveloped the city from 3:30 am to 9:30am. At least seven international flight of the national carrier were diverted to Muscat due to the foggy weather, which is stated to be a routine phenomenon during November.

They said that at least 11 international flights and nine domestic flights, which were scheduled to land Karachi Airport were delayed. Besides, they said, 18 outgoing flights, which included seven international flights, also suffered delays in their scheduled departure due to hostile weather conditions.

According to a PIA spokesman, seven international flights of PIA, diverted to Muscat, were PK-732, PK-7832 and PK-7834 from Jeddah, PK-788 from London, PK-216 from Kuwait, PK-260 from Muscat and PK-242 from Damam. These flights later returned when fog was cleared with a delay of 5 to 10 hours, he said.

The spokesman said the three international departing flights suffering delays included PK-266 for Dhaka, PK-274 for Bombay and PK-874 for Colombo.

He said the domestic departing flights suffering delays were PK-362 and PK-300 for Islamabad, PK-330 for Multan, PK-580 for Rahimyar Khan, PK-390 for Sukkur, PK-521 for Gwadar, PK-302 for Lahore, PK-340 for Faisalabad. These flights suffered delays for one to five hours.

The thick fog created hurdles to motorists and motorcyclists in the morning and many bike-riders were skidded owing to slippery roads.

People, who left their homes for offices and workplaces, faced trouble due to poor visibility. Motorists and drivers of public transport drove slowly on to avert accidents.