Thick fog in Brisbane grounds flights, disrupts morning travel as visibility slowly improves
Fog wrapped Brisbane before dawn on Thursday, forcing seven flights to divert and delaying dozens more as pilots and airport staff worked around sharply
Thick fog wrapped Brisbane before dawn on Thursday, forcing seven flights to divert and delaying dozens more as pilots and airport staff worked around sharply reduced visibility. One Manila-Brisbane service ended up in Sydney, hundreds of kilometres off course, while flights from Singapore, Los Angeles, Darwin and Perth were sent to Gold Coast Airport instead.
The low cloud and mist settled over the Queensland capital from about 2.30am, catching the morning travel peak and leaving the airport with a jammed schedule. Brisbane Airport officials said five flights were diverted to the Gold Coast and two were sent to Sydney. Departing flights were not cancelled, but the airport warned passengers to expect knock-on delays as incoming services backed up.
Travelers face a slow morning
Dozens of inbound domestic and international flights were delayed as the fog spread across the Brisbane metro area, Brisbane Valley and Ipswich. The effect was immediate. Aircraft could not safely line up for landing, and the arrival bank at Brisbane Airport began to slide behind schedule.
A Brisbane Airport spokesperson said visibility was improving across the airport by later in the morning. That offered some relief for passengers, but only after a difficult start for crews trying to keep the timetable from unraveling completely. For travelers, the problem was not just the landing itself. It was the ripple effect. Missed connections. Late pickups. Longer waits at terminals.
Why the fog lingered
The Bureau of Meteorology said the fog hung around longer than usual because of colder temperatures and moisture in the air. That combination kept the whiteout conditions in place well after sunrise, including in central Brisbane, where the iconic Story Bridge was partly swallowed by the haze and visibility dropped sharply.
Fog like this is a familiar hazard in many cities, but it can hit airports hard when it arrives at the wrong hour. Brisbane’s experience on Thursday followed the same pattern seen at major hubs elsewhere: a narrow weather window at dawn, a burst of diversions and delays, then a gradual return to normal once the air starts to lift. The difference here was scale. A single weather event disrupted arrivals from across Australia and from overseas in one morning.
What passengers can expect next
With conditions improving, the focus shifted to clearing the backlog of aircraft already waiting to land and sorting out the day’s delayed schedules. Officials said departing flights were still operating, a sign the airport had begun to recover even as incoming services remained under pressure.
For passengers due into Brisbane, the message was simple and not especially comforting: check your flight status, expect delays, and leave extra time. Fog can clear quickly. It can also hang on just long enough to throw an entire morning off balance. Thursday’s disruption left Brisbane Airport dealing with both.
