Smog Causing Flight Delays During Spring Festival Rush

Delays of an hour due to poor visibility from "fog"

Charles Liu February 17, 2015 8:01am

Picture taken of a Shenzhen highway on February 15, 2015.

The already stressful and arduous journey of returning home for the annual Spring Festival break at the same time as millions of other holiday-goers has been complicated by flight delays around the country caused by heavy smog.

Guangzhou Baiyun Airport reported yesterday it had been experiencing delays due to a lack of visibility. A total of 28 departing flights were delayed upwards of an hour, while 14 arriving flights suffered from the same fate.

A similar situation happened at Guiyang Airport in Guangxi on February 14. Due to reduced visibility, 30 flights were delayed by 7pm that day, with 19 flights ultimately getting cancelled. As a result, a total of 3,200 passengers were affected.

Earlier last week, the smog had caused train delays and poor traffic conditions throughout Guangdong Province due to the reduced visibility.

Last week also saw many air pollution warnings that were reported as both “smog” and “fog”, depending upon the Chinese media outlet reporting it. The issue continues to be be unclear as the February 14 news was reported as being “heavy fog” by Xinhua, just as was the recent Baiyun Airport news by Guangzhou Traffic.

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Charles Liu

The Nanfang's Senior Editor