Heavy mist in the city severely disrupted several flight operations and affected hundreds of passengers at the Chennai airport on Tuesday.
From 4.30 a.m. onwards, visibility began to dip but improved an hour later.
Flights to Madurai, Delhi, Mumbai, Kochi, Guwahati, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Thoothukudi and Hyderabad were delayed by half an hour to two hours.
“This resulted in delay of other flights much later in the day too, almost up to noon. Many incoming flights were also delayed,” an AAI official said.
Three flights were diverted as they could not land because of poor visibility. Flights from Mauritius and Muscat that were scheduled to land at 6.30 a.m. and 7.10 a.m. respectively were diverted to Bengaluru.
One flight from Kuala Lumpur that was to land at 7.51 a.m. was diverted to Tiruchi, sources said.
Several areas in the city witnessed early morning mist. Meenambakkam recorded a minimum temperature of 22.5 degrees Celsius, while Nungambakkam recorded 24 degrees Celsius. However, the mist was not thick at Nungambakkam.
The Regional Meteorological Centre has forecast early morning mist on Wednesday too, with the maximum temperature likely to be around 31 degrees Celsius and minimum at 23 degrees Celsius.