Dense morning fog disrupts UAE flights

Dense morning fog led to flight diversions from Abu Dhabi and Dubai airports, causing delays on Thursday, officials and an airline said. Dubai Airport announced delays on its Twitter account due to the fog and the Gulf News daily quoted a spokesman as saying that low visibility has "caused the diversion of eight flights into Dubai and one flight was cancelled." Etihad Airways said all flights into Abu Dhabi Thursday morning were diverted to other airports due to "a technical failure at the airport," without providing further details. It said the airport started to accept traffic again as the weather improved, and that diverted flights were returning to the Emirati capital. "However, Etihad Airways anticipates that normal operations at Abu Dhabi Airport will not resume for approximately 24 hours," with "significant delays" expected. The heavy fog, typical this time of year in the Gulf country, also caused several road accidents and traffic jams across the United Arab Emirates on Thursday, local media reported.