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LAHORE, Dec 24: Intending Haj pilgrims have to wait at least 10 hours at the Allama Iqbal airport as thick fog delayed the take-off of the four special flights to the holy land during the last 24 hours. “No plane could take off or land after 8pm on Friday till 11am on Saturday because of poor visibility,” a Civil Aviation Authority official said on Saturday.
All domestic and international flights to and from Lahore were late by three to 12 hours, he said.
Meanwhile, almost all upcountry train reached here two to seven hours late.
The Awam Express (13-up) could reach Lahore at 12:20pm instead of its scheduled time of 8:10am, the Karakorum Express (41-up) arrived at 9:25am instead of 7:30am, the Karachi Express (15-up) at 1:15pm instead of 10:30am, the Jaffar Express (39-up) at 2:05pm instead of 10:50am.
Freight and container trains also reached late their destinations.
FOG: A clear sky and slight drop in night temperature further thickened the blanket of fog over Lahore and elsewhere in Punjab on Saturday.
People had to drive slowly with the headlights of their vehicles on for safety till 11am in Lahore and several other cities in the province.
According to the Met office, visibility was reduced to mere 10 meters at 10.30pm at the airport last night. It remained so till 10am on Saturday and improved after 1pm. There was virtually zero visibility in some parts of the city.
Chief Meteorologist Shaukat Awan said fog thickened in many other cities like Bahawalpur, Multan, Sialkot, Sargodha, Mandi Bahauddin and Faisalabad and it persisted for a longer period of time during the day.
“It will remain foggy during the next three days. Afterwards we expect some rain because of the arrival of a westerly system,” he said.
The maximum temperature in Lahore was 19.4 degrees Celsius and the minimum 3.9 degrees C with 100 per cent humidity in the morning and 40 per cent late in afternoon.
