Unusual reason for airport chaos

A thick blanket of fog has caused massive delays and flight cancellations for one of Australia’s busiest airports across Monday and Tuesday morning.

Melbourne has been shrouded in an unseasonal fog for nearly 24 hours, causing flight chaos at Tullamarine airport.

Melbourne airport head of communications Andrew Lund told 3AW on Tuesday morning that he was hopeful the fog would lift before too many disruptions.

However, by 7am several flights were delayed for up to an hour and eight inbound and 20 departures had been cancelled.

This followed a horror day on Monday full of delays and cancellations because of the fog.

“Yesterday was pretty ugly,” Mr Lund said.

“All weather related again, just that low cloud and fog downed the arrivals rate because traffic control couldn’t get as many aircraft down on the ground as quickly as they usually would.

“That cascaded down into delays for departures as well. All up we had 105 domestic flights cancelled across arrivals and departures and a few international flights as well.

“We also diverted some flights into Hobart and Sydney.”

Anyone flying out of Melbourne on Tuesday should reach out to their airline before heading to the airport, Mr Lund said.

“We just advise people if they are flying out today to double check with their airline about what their departure time is looking like,” he said.