Fog prompts more cancellations at Sofia airport
09 January 2008There have been further cancellations and delays at Sofia airport following visibility problems caused by heavy fog.
A total of five flights were called off on January 9th as a result of the poor conditions, the Sofia News Agency reports.
An Austrian Airlines service from Vienna was unable to land and had to return to its point of departure.
Another service from Brussels had to be redirected to Varna, while a Lufthansa plane carrying passengers from Frankfurt was forced to land in Thessaloniki, Greece.
Passengers travelling from Italy were also relying on their travel insurance to cover the cost incurred by cancellations, with flights to Sofia from Milan and Bologna called off.
The current problems follow weather issues that troubled the Bulgarian airport over Christmas, with hundreds of passengers stranded in Sofia after dense fog necessitated the cancellation of dozens of flights.
Landing systems currently in use in the Bulgarian capital only allow flights to land when vertical visibility is at least 30 metres and horizontal visibility a minimum of 350 metres.