Bank of fog causes flight delays at Malaga airport

Fog complicated operations at Málaga-Costa del Sol Airport in the early hours of Thursday, where the low visibility procedure was activated and delays were recorded, mainly in departures.

According to sources in the control tower, the day began with the presence of a dense fog bank around the airport, especially on the old runway. Although the new runway had good visibility, the controllers work jointly with both airfields, so this situation has affected operations as a whole.

Therefore, in the early hours of the morning it was necessary to activate the low visibility procedure, which includes several phases depending on the visual range on the runway. "We have reached critical phase 3," said the same sources, with moments in which visibility was reduced to barely 200 metres.

In such a situation, landings are not authorised until conditions improve. Despite this, no aircraft has had to divert to other airports, as traffic has been managed at the point of origin, while aircraft already nearby have been able to enter using the windows of better visibility.

The regulation of air traffic has been carried out with a staggered arrival and departure system, more spaced out than normal. As a result, there have been some occasional delays in departures, albeit minor, of "no more than 15 minutes ", according to the sources.

The number of scheduled flights was not significantly altered and, as the fog lifted, operations gradually returned to normal from around 10.30am onwards.