The biting harmattan haze has disrupted air travel as a lot of passengers have been left stranded at the Kotoka International Airport, Ghana.

Those who could not wait for the weather to clear had to leave for their various homes, with disappointment written on their faces, local Daily Graphic reported on Thursday.

Some people who were anxiously waiting for their loved ones at the Arrival Hall of the airport were asked to wait a little while, as most flights had been redirected to land in neighboring countries such as Nigeria, Togo and Cote d’Ivoire due to poor visibility at the airport

A Delta Airlines flight which was scheduled to arrive in Accra yesterday morning from the John F. Kennedy (JFK) Airport in New York was, for instance, redirected to Lagos in Nigeria.

The Delta flight, which was originally scheduled to depart from Accra at 10 a.m., was rescheduled twice to 12 noon and 1:30 p.m. and later to 6 p.m. today, but as of the time of going to press there was no word on the flight’s departure.

Many local flights had been cancelled due to the bad weather.

Even though some attendants were optimistic that the fog in the atmosphere would be cleared within a day or two, they could not stick their necks out to state when flights would be in full operation.

At the ticketing sections of African World Airlines (AWA) and Starbow, some sales executives who spoke on condition of anonymity said all local flights had been cancelled due to the bad weather condition.

“Due to the poor weather condition, flights have been cancelled until tomorrow when we are sure we will have a good weather.

“Passengers have been told to either hold on till the next day or retrieve their money if they cannot wait,” one of the sources said.

The Director General of the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), Mr. Simon Allotey, said the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMA) had assured the authority that the weather was now clear and so flights could operate.

According to him, as of Wednesday morning no airline could land, partly because the weather was about 500 meters misty in the atmosphere and it was not advisable for the planes to fly.

Source:  GraphicOnline