Flights delayed

FLIGHTS across the eastern seaboard and the nation's capital have been delayed due to strong winds as the area is battered by a severe cold front.Wild weather has forced the temporary closure of one runway at Sydney airport, with only half the number of flights able to take off as gusts of up to 90km/h affect Sydney airport.

Passengers in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Adelaide can expect delays of up to an hour throughout Tuesday a Qantas spokeswoman said.Unfortunately what we are seeing is delays network wide, she told ABC radio.We're seeing delays in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, and Adelaide and this is due to the current weather conditions.

In particular there is only one runway being used in Sydney, which is the east west and this is meaning that we've only got 24 aircraft movements an hour and usually we'd see around 50.Poor conditions at Melbourne airport had led to two incoming flights being forced to turn around on approach due to strong head winds.

Unfortunately, we are going to see significant delays, the spokeswoman said. We do understand that this is a concern and that it is an inconvenience to passengers but we ask them to be patient but we do expect around an hour delay.She said large numbers of people were waiting at terminals.I think people do understand that we have unfortunate weather conditions.