Ice on the wings of 737 aircraft has delayed three flights at Adelaide Airport.

Two Qantas flights headed for Perth and Sydney and one Virgin Blue flight bound for Melbourne were due to leave at around 7:00am.

Airport managing director Phil Baker says up to 400 passengers were kept waiting until the planes were ready to leave at 8:15am.

Mr Baker says waiting for the air temperature to increase is the only solution for the icy wings.

"The airlines - I believe with the exception of Rex - don't have any de-icing equipment for ground icing," he said.

"It's very common in Europe where you know on very cold nights they have to spray this fluid over aircraft before they depart in the morning.

"Here we don't have such equipment because it very rarely, very rarely gets down to this cold."