Thick fog on Thursday hampered airplane takeoffs and landings at Stefan cel Mare Airport in Suceava for the third consecutive day, with 17 flights being cancelled or diverted to other airports, told Agerpres.
Suceava Airport Director Ioan Mariuta said on Thursday that only two airplanes landed in Suceava on Tuesday, one from Bucharest and another from Milan - Bergamo, and 17 other flights from or to Suceava were either cancelled or relocated on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
On Thursday, six flights were either cancelled or diverted to Cluj-Napoca and Iasi.
According to Mariuta, on Wednesday the Ryanair passengers to Dublin, Bergamo, Rome and Treviso were driven by coach to Cluj-Napoca, and those from two WizzAir flights landed in Iasi.
Tuesday through Thursday, over 1,000 people were shuttled from Suceava to airports in Iasi and Cluj-Napoca.
Airport officials said on Thursday that due to frozen thick fog, aircraft could not safely land as visibility fell below the minimum of the Category (CAT) II Instrument Landing System (ILS) operation requirements, less than 100 m horizontally and a cloud ceiling below 30 metres.
The existing ILS system at Suceava Airport is a system that can be found at most airports in Romania.
CAT III B ILS, a better performing equipment, can be found at the airports Henri Coanda in Bucharest and Traian Vuia in Timisoara.
Maintenance of the ILS equipment and the operation of the system are provided by the ROMATSA - Romanian Air Traffic Services Administration.
The airports provide the necessary infrastructure to service aircraft on the ground using their own staff, but they are not involved in the processing of passengers and check-in procedures.
Communication with passengers is carried out through the check-in agents, who provide the connection between passengers and airlines.
The decision to cancel, reschedule or divert a flight to another airport belongs strictly to the airlines, which also take care of all formalities related to the transport and accommodation of passengers affected by flight delays/cancellations/rescheduling.
The airports' priority is that all air operations are carried out safely and securely so that passengers and airport staff are not endangered.
"Weather is beyond our control. We want to apologise to all the affected passengers and ask them to consider staying in touch at all times with the airlines from which they have purchased their tickets and with their officials," the Suceava Airport said.