Thursday 19 July, 2012

The first flight out of Tamworth Regional Airport was delayed almost four hours this morning due to unusually thick fog.

Speaking at about 10.15am today, Tamworth Regional Airport Manager Michael Dubois said the dense fog was ‘very uncharacteristic’ for Tamworth.

‘This is an incredible fog today . . . one of the worse I have seen in 20 years,’ he said.

‘The first departure – the 6.30am flight to Sydney - is just about to go. The sun is now burning off the fog quickly.

‘The Brindabella Airlines flight due in from Brisbane at 7.45am today has not left Brisbane.’ 

The Brindabella flight landed at Tamworth at 11.30am. It is due to take off on its return flight just after noon today.

Mr Dubois said the fog disruption is quite unusual for Tamworth Regional Airport.

‘We have one of the lowest number of fog-affected days of all NSW regional airports,’ he said.

‘On average we expect not more than one or two days each winter where fog will put a halt to our operations. In fact, it’s one of the reasons behind Tamworth being chosen as the location for the BAE Systems Flight Training School.

‘Most of the time, if flights at Tamworth are affected by fog it’s because of problems in Sydney.’ 

Mr Dubois described today’s fog as `a real pea-souper’.

‘Earlier today visibility was only just over 100 metres,’ he said. ‘Pilots require visibility of at least 500 metres before they will fly.’