ABU DHABI // An Etihad flight from Manila that was due to arrive in the capital on Monday morning was diverted to Dubai where it and the passengers remained for more than 10 hours.
Flight EY421 was scheduled to land at Abu Dhabi Airport at 6.15am but had to be diverted to Al Maktoum Airport because of heavy fog.
Passengers remained on the plane for almost nine hours before being taken to a terminal.
"We were not told anything in terms of when we might be able to depart," said a 26-year-old American passenger who did not wish to be identified.
"It's really frustrating because I was just 45 minutes away from home in Abu Dhabi, but I was stuck at the airport along with hundreds of others for more than 10 hours."
Passengers who boarded the flight in the Philippine capital at about midnight were surprised to be told they had been diverted to Dubai.
"Once we landed we didn't get any updates about what was going on," the American said.
The captain eventually provided some details but passengers were not told when they would be departing the aircraft.
"At about 11.30am we were told that we would be flying out, so everyone got back in their seats. But after about 30 minutes it became apparent that we weren't going anywhere."
Although the atmosphere onboard was mostly calm some passengers were becoming increasingly frustrated, the man said.
"The information I got was only from talking to the cabin crew and they didn't have many details. We were eventually taken off the plane to go into the airport itself at about 2.30pm but from then on we were just waiting.
"I would have thought that they could have taken us the rest of the journey by bus but it wasn't even mentioned."
Etihad did tell passengers that a new flight crew would take them the rest of the journey, the man said.
The plane eventually took off from Al Maktoum airport at 6:15pm en route to Abu Dhabi.
Its diversion was caused by thick fog that settled over Abu Dhabi Airport from midnight on Sunday.
The fog resulted in 44 early-morning flights being delayed for at least four hours, along with several cancellations.
The runway reopened at 6am on Monday.
Etihad said it planned to complete its schedule for the day, but that there would be delays.
Of the 21 inbound flights diverted in the morning to seven other airports 15 managed to complete their journey to Abu Dhabi by midday. Of these 18 were passenger jets and three freight planes.
Etihad's flights from the capital to Munich, Paris, New York, Milan, Rome, Manila, Riyadh, London, Dublin, Casablanca and Kuwait all departed. A larger number of flights were scheduled to leave early in the afternoon.
The airline also deployed an additional 100 staff to the airport to help those arriving and departing who were facing a knock-on effect from the weather conditions earlier in the morning.
"Flights have now resumed operation at Abu Dhabi International Airport after being delayed due to unforecasted heavy fog in the early hours of this morning," said a statement on Abu Dhabi Airport's website.
"The flight departures resumed when the runway reopened shortly after 6am once visibility improved above the minimum required levels to allow normal low visibility operations."
Abu Dhabi Airport said that although it was working with Etihad to minimise the disruption, delays were expected throughout the day.
By the afternoon nine Etihad flights had completed trips to Abu Dhabi.
Weather forecasters at the National Centre of Meteorology and Seismology in Abu Dhabi said it was very unlikely that fog would be forming over the emirate or other coastal areas of the country on Tuesday.
Mildly unstable conditions, however, meant that internal areas of the country such as Liwa could have some light fogon Tuesday morning. Most areas will be partly cloudy with relative humidity increasing in the evening.
Etihad expected to resume normal operations within 24 hours.
For more information, passengers are urged to contact the Etihad Airways contact centre at +971 (0) 2599 0000 or click here.
nhanif@thenational.ae
Abu Dhabi airport reopens after fog grounds flights
Inbound flights diverted to seven airports to complete their journeys to Abu Dhabi.
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