Fog caused major disruption for hundreds of passengers at Dublin, Shannon and Galway Airports yesterday, with Shannon and Galway effectively closed for parts of the day.
An Aer Lingus spokeswoman said Shannon was "marginal" all day, with Galway "fog-bound". Ninety-six flights were cancelled at Dublin Airport by yesterday evening, while outgoing flights were delayed. At Shannon many incoming flights were diverted, but clear weather at Cork Airport meant diverted flights, including some international ones, could land there.
Mr Oliver McCann of Aer Rianta said it had not been a good day from a passenger point of view, and was very disruptive generally from 6.20 a.m. The amount of cancellations had been huge, he said. Dublin and Shannon were "totally operational" (all-weather) airports, he said, but it was also required that aircraft crews be trained for landing/take-off in fog and that the various aircraft have the required technology for landing in such conditions.
This was not the case with older aircraft, he said, which is why there were so many cancellations. Visibility at Dublin was down to 100 metres at one stage yesterday, with a visibility of 200-400 metres on average.
Ms Suzanne Cross of Aer Lingus said there had been "quite a bit" of disruption on all flights, with severe disruption on some transatlantic routes. Flights to North America had to be cancelled and passengers were put up in hotels overnight. It was hoped they could be flown out today, she said.
Aer Lingus domestic flights to Shannon and Galway had to be cancelled and, although most European flights did take off after delays, there were problems with flights to Amsterdam because of high winds at Schiphol airport.
Ryanair suffered numerous cancellations yesterday. A supervisor at Dublin referred all queries to the company press office, which she said would be open again on Monday.
