Thirteen flights due to arrive in Hong Kong International Airport on Sunday morning were delayed up to more than 10 hours because of heavy fog and low visibility, the Hong Kong Airport Authority said Sunday.

The airport had resumed normal operation by Sunday evening after all the flights returned, said the authority.

On Sunday evening, Cathay Pacific, the largest Hong Kong-based airline company, confirmed that a total of its 10 flights were diverted to other cities because of the heavy fog in the airport Sunday morning.

Three passenger flights were diverted to Taipei, another 5 passenger flights and one freighter were diverted to Guangzhou and one other passenger flight was diverted to Manila, according to a statement from the company.

All the flights have returned to Hong Kong despite their delay ranging from 1 hour and 39 minutes to 11 hours 55 minutes, according to the statement.

The company apologized to all the passengers concerned for the delay and said it had made compensation to passengers from two of the flights because of their long delay.

Due to the late arrival of the aircraft into Hong Kong, a number of flights from Hong Kong on Monday will also be delayed from 2 hours to about 5 hours, said Cathay Pacific.

The flights expected to be delayed on Monday include one from Hong Kong to Taipei and Tokyo, one to Los Angeles and one to London.

Due to the heavy fog, two freighter ships collided in southern Hong Kong waters on Sunday morning, but there have been no reports of human casualties so far.

(Xinhua News Agency April 7, 2008)