Fog disrupts flight operation in Saidpur airport, ferry services in Paturia-Daulatdia
Although air traffic should have 2,000 meters of visibility, there are now only 100 meters, says Lokman Hakim, officer-in-charge of the Saidpur Met office
Dense fog has disrupted flight operations at the Saidpur Airport in northern Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, ferry services in the Paturia-Daulatria also remained halted for three hours this morning.
In Saidpur, several flights could not land at the airport from last night (9 December) to this morning (10 December) due to dense fog that reduced visibility to zero meters, reports Prothom Alo.
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Passengers have been suffering as a result, with many taking shelter in various residential hotels.
Saidpur Airport Manager AKM Bahauddin Zakaria said two Air Astra and NovoAir flights were cancelled last night due to zero visibility in the sky of Saidpur.
"If the weather improves by noon today, flight operations may be normal," he told Prothom Alo.
During winter, it is not possible to operate flights at the airport according to the schedule in the morning and night. Passengers suffer due to schedule disruptions almost every day.
Lokman Hakim, officer-in-charge of the Saidpur Met office, said the temperature was recorded at 14.5 degrees Celsius at 6am today.
"Although air traffic should have 2,000 meters of visibility, there is now only 100 meters," he added.
As a result, the two-morning flights have not yet left Dhaka
Meanwhile, due to heavy fog, the ferry and all other services remained halted for three hours this morning at the Daulatdia and Paturia terminals in Aricha.
Authorities stopped ferry services at around 6am to avoid accidents. Later, when the fog cleared, ferry services resumed at around 9:15am.
Other vessels are also plying the river now, confirmed Nasir Mohammad Chowdhury, deputy general manager of the Aricha office of the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC).
