LAHORE, Jan 10: Passengers on Friday continued to suffer because of the disruption of the flight schedule at fogbound Lahore airport.

They had to brave the extreme cold weather conditions, waiting for their flights at the airport lacking in facilities. Many had to stand for hours as there were no proper seating arrangements. Nobody at the airport even bothered to provide the facility to handle the emergency situation.

A number of stranded passengers told Dawnthat they got to the airport in the extreme cold weather but disappointed after learning that their flights had been cancelled.

A passenger, Muhammad Ali, said that his flight for Karachi was delayed and he was forced to stay in the open corridor of the airport for over three hours.

The unfavourable aviation conditions had affected some 278 domestic flights during the first week of this month.

A PIA spokesman said of 215 flights from Lahore, 26 had been cancelled, 15 diverted and 71 delayed during this time. The spokesman said that some 103 flights had also suffered ‘consequential delays’ across the domestic network.

On Friday morning, a stranded family head, Mufti Abdul Qadir, said that they were disappointed after learning at the airport that their flight for Qatar had been delayed for two hours.

He said that they came to the airport some three hours before the departure time. He said that the airport had just announced that the flight would now depart at 12noon.

Same was the case with the other passengers, who said that there were no proper arrangements for tea, coffee and other eatables at the airport.