A domestic Chinese airline shared a humorous microblog post on Tuesday afternoon, claiming that its flights were delayed because workers had "dug the wrong plane out of the snow".

The post, from Lucky Air, was accompanied by a photograph, allegedly showing three men shoveling snow off a plane belonging to the airline at Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport in Central China's Henan province.

It was posted at about 3:30 p.m. and received a flurry of "likes" and shares, but has since been deleted.

Shi Shufang, a worker at the airport, said the post had left them confused because Tuesday's snow was not as heavy as that shown in the picture.

"We called the airline and they explained that the microblog was just a humorous way of easing passengers' anxiety about flight delays," Shi said.

Snowfall caused 99 delays and 137 cancellations at the airport in Zhengzhou on Tuesday, according to Dahe Daily.