Thick fog brought visibility down to 300 metres in Canberra on Tuesday morning, prompting numerous delays and cancellations for airline passengers.
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Qantas and Virgin cancelled numerous flights in and out of Canberra Airport due to fog, leaving some passengers stranded in the departure lounge for hours.
Flights between Sydney and Canberra were among the canned trips, as were flights between Melbourne and Canberra. Two flights due to land in Canberra from Adelaide and Brisbane were also diverted due to fog.
A spokeswoman for Virgin said the airline cancelled six flights throughout the day, consisting of two return flights from Sydney and one return flight from Melbourne.
She said four additional flights were delayed in and out of Canberra, consisting of return trips to Sydney and Melbourne.
Melbourne woman Elysia Nener said poor weather had left her stranded in airports numerous times during her monthly trips between her home and Canberra.
“I’ve been doing this for the past six months or so,” she said.
“It does happen, especially in winter.”
While she was only delayed by an hour on Tuesday, Ms Nener said many of her Virgin flights had been cancelled due to poor weather over the past weeks.
“Sometimes I’ll be left paying extra, which is a bit annoying,” she said.
“It’s happened a lot over the past two months. I am tempted to switch [airlines] but I think all airlines are having the same problems with the weather.”
Other passengers were less patient, with US tourist Kaitlyn Ortiz left frustrated by both delays and lack of wifi.
“I’ve never had to deal with this before,” she said.
The Bureau of Meteorology said the fog and low cloud could remain low around the capital as late as 3pm, a situation described as “quite common” for Canberra.
Duty Meteorologist Karna Nair said light winds and clear skies combined with a high sitting over Canberra had created perfect fog conditions.
"It's a good set up for fog," he said.
"It's going to be pretty similar on Wednesday."
Foggy conditions are expected to remain in place throughout the week until a cold front moves over the capital on Friday.