Fog in east China disrupted the air travel plans of thousands of passengers in Shanghai and Hangzhou on Thursday, airports said. The Xiaoshan International Airport in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province, had a visibility of less than 50 meters on Thursday morning. Eighty-three flights were delayed and around 5,000 passengers affected.

On Wednesday, 90 flights were cancelled at the Xiaoshan airport, stranding 9,000 passengers, according to Wang Kangmin, an airport official.

Wang said the airport arranged for 53 provisional flights at midday Thursday to transport passengers. By 4 p.m. Thursday, all passengers stranded Wednesday had left by air. In Shanghai, 340 flights could not take off or land as scheduled and around 60 were cancelled at Pudong International Airport due to fog. Foggy weather has affected the coastal airport frequently in the past few days.

(Xinhua News Agency January 11, 2008)