Birmingham airport has today been hit by flight delays and cancellations for the second time in four days after failure in air traffic control. Thousands of passengers are affected and the airport faces backlash.
Chaos in Birmingham airport:
Last Thursday night, the airport faced a flight delay and numerous cancellations after closing the runway due to severe snow. Three days later, it experienced similar conditions, but with Birmingham’s air traffic control tower being the centre of focus.
Dozens of flights were delayed, diverted and cancelled. Air traffic control failure is believed to be caused by a fire at a National Grid location.
The last flight landing into Birmingham Airport on Sunday was the Jet2 from Faro, before the airport faced difficulties. All the subsequent arrivals were turned back or diverted to nearby airports.
Delay, Diversion and Cancellation:
The flights which turned back or diverted are Jet2, Ryanair, easyJet, Tui, Air France, and Lufthansa.
Jet2 from Gran Canaria and Ryanair from Dublin and Murcia were diverted to Liverpool John Lennon airport. An Airport in the East Midlands welcomed easyJet from Marrakech, Ryanair from Malaga and Tui from Tenerife.
A number of flights landed in nearby airports like: Bristol, Manchester and Stansted. Some of the flights were returned back or delayed.
Air France from Paris CDG was returned back to Paris after the news reached the aircraft when it was almost at the Channel coast, flying in a holding pattern before returning to the French airport. The KLM flight from Amsterdam was later returned to Schiphol airport.
The Lufthansa from Frankfurt was cancelled after the news broke. After a few hours order was restored and the Birmingham airport once again welcomed back its normal schedule.
Where you affected by the flight cancellations? Let us know in the comments below
