A power outage at Birmingham Airport, triggered by severe weather conditions, led to significant delays and flight diversions affecting numerous passengers.
Following the impactful Storm Goretti, the region continued to experience harsh wet and windy weather, which disrupted airport operations by halting all flight arrivals. As a result, several incoming flights were redirected to alternative airports.
During this disruption, only departing flights continued to operate normally. The technical issue began on the evening of Sunday, January 11, extending into the early hours of Monday. At least a dozen flights were diverted, with others either canceled or delayed for up to four hours.
READ MORE: DWP to End Income-Related ESA for 650,000 Claimants and Accelerates Migration to Universal Credit
READ MORE: UK Faces Potentially Severe Snowstorm with 450-Mile Wide Snow Wall
Diverted flights were redirected to nearby airports including Stansted, East Midlands, and Liverpool John Lennon Airport. A spokesperson from the National Air Traffic Service (NATS) told Birmingham Live, “We have restored our radar serving Birmingham Airport following an earlier power outage caused by bad weather, and it is now functioning normally again. We are working closely with the airport to resume air traffic services and sincerely apologize to all passengers affected by this issue.”
NATS engineers collaborated with the National Grid to resolve the power outage as swiftly as possible.
Flight diversions started as early as 7:45pm on Sunday evening. This incident marks the second weather-related disruption at Birmingham Airport within three days. Earlier, on Friday, January 9, operations were suspended due to snow from Storm Goretti blanketing the runway. At that time, a spokesperson advised passengers to contact their airlines regarding flight statuses.