Thousands stranded as fog stops flights at Wellington

Rugby players heading to the sevens tournament in Wellington this weekend were among thousands of passengers stranded when mist and fog stopped flights at the capital's airport yesterday.

Low cloud caused by a large subtropical air mass began disrupting flights from 7pm on Tuesday. By last night, all flights in and out of the airport had been cancelled.

It was hoped they would resume this morning, about 36 hours after the cloud closed in.

Wellington International Airport duty manager Ian Pocock said thousands of passengers were stranded at the airport during the day.

Many had waited, hoping the cloud would lift. But instead it got worse, and at 6pm all flights were cancelled.

At 7pm, Mr Pocock said, fog had fallen to ground level. "There's no visibility at all."

He said such lengthy disruptions happened only once or twice or year, and usually in summer.

More than 8000 passengers on Air New Zealand group flights in and out of Wellington were among those affected. Air New Zealand spokesman Mike Tod said extra flights would be put on today to help move the backlog of passengers.

Qantas passengers were also affected, with about 200 passengers from Australia diverted to Auckland and Christchurch and five flights cancelled.

Sevens director Steve Dunbar said the Fiji team had to fly to Auckland and then Palmerston North. They were taking a bus to Wellington last night.

The Kenyan team were diverted to Christchurch and hoped to fly to Wellington this morning.

David Hansen, general manager operations at Auckland International Airport, said Auckland business passengers appeared to have been the worst affected.

MetService severe weather forecaster Ian Miller said low cloud and mist started closing in around Wellington airport at 5pm on Tuesday.

It did not become fog, when there is visibility of less than 1000m, until 4pm yesterday.

Mr Miller said the conditions were caused by a very humid northeasterly flow coming down the east coast of the North Island and being pushed into Wellington by a southerly.