Overview
- A surface failure on a taxiway forced the closure of one of Manchester Airport's two runways early Monday as heavy rain and poor visibility from Met Office warnings compounded disruption.
- Air traffic control capped inbound flights while departures were not formally limited, causing cascading delays as late arrivals pushed back later outbound services.
- Multiple airlines, including British Airways, Ryanair, easyJet, Lufthansa, Finnair, Turkish Airlines and others, reported multi‑hour delays and some cancellations affecting European and long‑haul routes.
- Engineers reopened the second runway at about 2pm, improving throughput and allowing many evening departures to operate, with the airport advising passengers to arrive as normal.
- Hundreds of flights were impacted and thousands of passengers faced long waits, extra costs and customer-service issues, with residual delays continuing as the airport heads into its busy Christmas travel period.