Dozens of flights to and from Sofia's international airport were cancelled on Christmas Day with the fog descending on the Bulgarian capital.

Flights from Frankfurt, Budapest, Milan, Amsterdam, Munich, Madrid, London, Vienna, Prague, Athens and Rome were cancelled before their departure, according to the Sofia airport website.

That in turn has affected the return flights, while other planes that have landed in Sofia and were scheduled to fly to locations like Brussels, Budapest, London or Bucharest will not take off.

Three flights left Sofia in early afternoon, to Moscow, Frankfurt and Munich, but weather conditions at Sofia airport remained bad throughout the day.

Another two flights, to Prague and Larnaka on Cyprus, have also gone ahead as scheduled, but at least 16 flights by flag carrier Bulgaria Air have been grounded.

The news comes after more flights had been cancelled on Christmas Eve, disrupting the travel plans of thousands of people.

Sofia airport's runway is outfitted with a category II instrument landing system, which allows landing when vertical visibility is 30 metres and horizontal visibility of at least 350 metres.

But during the day, the fog blanket cut horizontal visibility at the runway to 200 metres, which would require at least a category III A certification.

The fog blanket is expected to lift on Tuesday evening, weather forecasters said.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!