Airspace disruption leaves thousands stranded across Europe

Thousands of passengers have been stranded across Europe after a communications failure forced Greece to close its airspace and led to widespread cancellations and delays.

Officials are trying to determine why radio communication was out Sunday morning, temporarily halting arrivals and departures.

Some departures have since been allowed to resume, but inbound flights are still being told to redirect or return to their origins. Athens’ main airport is one of the hardest hit, while Thessaloniki Airport is completely closed.

The timing of this disruption has raised concerns that travelers will not be able to get home before the start of the work week.

A passenger at Athens International Airport told Greek broadcaster Mega TV: “I was planning to take the SAS to London via Stockholm.” “I’m scheduled to work at Newport Hospital tomorrow morning. I don’t know what else to say as I don’t think I’ll make it in time.

“Who will pay for the extra costs of this trip? We don’t know yet if or when we will leave, and no one is telling us anything.”

More than 90 flights to and from Athens Airport were affected, but some flights have since been able to resume.

Airport staff told the BBC that 35 aircraft per hour are currently allowed to take off, but inbound flights are still not available.

Flights from Dublin, Barcelona and Paris were previously ordered to return to their original airports, while flights from Copenhagen and Malta were canceled entirely.

Other flights arriving in Athens were also put on hold, and flights to and from other Greek airports were also affected. According to public broadcaster ERT, three flights were delayed from Crete’s Heraklion airport, including one to Munich.

Most inbound flights were reported being diverted to Türkiye if not canceled outright.

The disruption comes at a busy time for air travel in and out of Athens, with more than 600 regular flights a day, as people return from winter holidays.

Amid the confusing situation, some passengers complained of a lack of information.

One person told news site Flash: “We have no updated information. They said we can leave but I don’t think this is true. I don’t see my flight on the departure board and I’m supposed to be leaving soon.”

“From that moment until now, we have no information,” another person who was heading to Athens on a flight to Rhodes told Reuters.

Domestic travelers can use the Greek rail network to get home, but it may take much longer.

The issue causing the confusion is believed to be related to the radio system used by air traffic controllers to communicate with planes in the airspace.

“All the frequencies suddenly disappeared,” Panagiotis Psaros, president of the Hellenic Air Traffic Controllers Association, told ERT. “We couldn’t communicate with the aircraft in the sky.”

The broadcaster later reported that an initial investigation by Greek security services suggested the problem may have been caused by an antenna failure in the Gerania Mountains near Athens.

Italy, Türkiye and Cyprus are assisting Greece in managing the situation.