Hundreds wait as fog halts flights at Wellington airport

Travel plans for hundreds of passengers are shrouded in doubt today as heavy fog at Wellington airport continues to disrupt international and domestic flights.

Three flights travelling to Wellington from Australia had to be diverted to Christchurch and Auckland last night because of fog.

This morning, hundreds of domestic and international passengers wanting to travel to and from Wellington face further disruption with all flights pushed back.

A Wellington Airport spokesman this morning told NZPA the airport had been unable to allow planes to arrive since about 7pm yesterday when the fog closed in.

The spokesman said there were hundreds of people in the terminal wanting to know when flights would start again but the airport was unable to give any answer.

"It could lift in five minutes. It could lift in 12 hours. We just don't know."

He said there were people waiting for flights to arrive and take off but the numbers "weren't too bad".

Air New Zealand spokesman Mike Tod said three Boeing 737 flights from Auckland and Christchurch had been cancelled this morning.

"That probably affects at least 250 people at the moment."

Last night flights from Dunedin, Christchurch and Auckland had had to be diverted and four domestic flights from Wellington cancelled.

Qantas regional general manager for New Zealand Allan Williams said the airline had had to cancel three domestic and two international flights this morning.

About 200 passengers from Australia diverted to Auckland and Christchurch last night had been put up in hotels.

Mr Williams described the disruptions as "pretty significant".

He expected the backlog to take quite some time to recover but many of the people flying out of Wellington would have cancelled their trips rather than wait at the airport.

"Wellington is such a big centre for business travel as opposed to leisure travel that people just cancel their trip completely.

"If they are coming on a day trip to Auckland and it gets to mid-morning, they just go back to the office or go home."

- NZPA