ONE flight was cancelled and 13 planes were rerouted when fog descended on Palma's Son Sant Joan airport yesterday morning, AENA (the airport authority) said. The fog came down at 5.30am and normal service was not restored until 9am.
Three of the flights which were rerouted two from Air Berlin and one of Luxair - landed at Minorca, while the others - five of Air Berlin, two of Hapag-Lloyd, two of Condor and one of Iberia - landed on Ibiza. They were later able to complete their journey, landing at Palma, after 9am. The cancelled flight was an Iberia plane which had been due to take off from Barcelona in the early hours of the morning.
Poor visibility also led to delays in other flights of up to two hours in some cases, although the situation improved as the day progressed.
It is not the first time that fog has caused problems at Son Sant Joan this month.
On March 5, fog caused 16 planes to be rerouted and there were delays of up to 50 minutes throughout the morning.
Some 2'400 passengers were affected on that occasion and the planes were rerouted to Mahon in Minorca, Ibiza, Barcelona and Valencia.
However, the problems caused by fog will come to an end shortly, as it was announced earlier this week that the new ILS equipment which will enable the airport to operate in adverse weather conditions, chiefly fog or low cloud, will be operative from August 5. The equipment has already been tested satisfactorily by the ministry of defence's laboratory plane, airport sources said.
One flight cancelled, 13 rerouted because of fog