Disruption to flights at Dublin airport finally ended early yesterday afternoon after fog plunged the weekend's busy August timetables into chaos. Some 55 flights were cancelled and passengers travelling on three charter flights were forced to spend Saturday night at the airport.
Other holiday-makers saw their plans seriously disrupted with many facing delays of up to 12 hours. Virtually all flights on Friday were delayed for at least two hours, with similar delays lasting all day on Saturday and into yesterday. The weekend of chaos began early on Friday morning when heavy fog resulted in 25 flights being cancelled. Most of those were Ryanair and Aer Arann services. Extra aircraft were laid on throughout the day after the fog lifted at around noon. However, by the time some of those replacement flights were due to take off late on Friday night, fog had rolled in again, forcing the cancellation of a further 30 flights, according to Aer Rianta. A spokeswoman for the company said between 1,600 and 2,000 flights used the airport over the weekend, one of the busiest of the year. The shortage of replacement landing and departure slots meant the delays of Friday were not cleared until yesterday at around 1 p.m.
"Most of the flights on Saturday and up until early \ afternoon were delayed because of the cancellations on Friday. Delays were between one and two hours but some delays were up to 12 hours," the spokeswoman said. Dozens of guests travelling to the wedding of Nicky Byrne and Georgina Ahern were delayed when their Ryanair flight was cancelled on Friday morning. The group left at around 12.30 p.m. on Friday, just two hours after they were originally due to leave. Ryanair denied it had given them preferential treatment.
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