#englishnews #Veniceairportclosed <br /><br />News Article :-<br />Venice airport was closed for more than an hour and flights were diverted on Friday due to the presence of a flock of seagulls.<br /><br />Marco Polo Airport in the north-eastern Italian city closed at 09:45 local time (07:45 GMT).<br /><br />Flights were diverted to Treviso, Verona, Trieste and Milan before normal operations resumed at 11:20.<br /><br />Bird strikes at airports are most common during take-off and landing, and can cause damage to aircraft.<br /><br />Marco Polo Airport apologised to passengers who were affected by the disruption.<br />Ten flights due to depart between 09:40 and 12:15 on Friday were cancelled, according to the airport's website, while several others were delayed.<br /><br />Four arrival flights were also cancelled in the morning, with many delayed and others diverted to alternative airports.<br /><br />More than nine million passengers used Venice airport last year, and almost 8,000 flights transited through the hub last month.<br /><br />In the city itself, seagulls are a common sight and Venice hoteliers came up with a novel way of attempting to fend off the birds from tourists last year.<br /><br />Some hotels left orange water pistols in rooms for tourists to use to scare off the birds.<br /><br />Paolo Lorenzini, director of the Gritti Hotel, told Italian media: "As soon as they see the pistols, they fly away.<br /><br />"You don't even need to use them, you just need to keep them on the table."
