Thousands of passengers faced major disruption at Manchester Airport on Monday, December 15, after one of its runways was closed for emergency repairs, with torrential rain and poor visibility worsening the situation.
The UK’s third-busiest airport was thrown into chaos when a “surface failure” was discovered on a connecting taxiway, forcing the closure of one of its two runways. As a result, the airport was left operating on a single runway, significantly reducing flight capacity.
Engineers worked urgently to repair the fault, but heavy rainfall across Greater Manchester hampered progress and reduced visibility. Air traffic controllers were forced to limit the number of incoming flights, leading to widespread delays and cancellations.
Passengers experienced average delays of around 70 minutes, with dozens of flights postponed for several hours. By midday, at least two cancellations had been confirmed.
Among the most affected services were a Ryanair flight to Berlin (FR1145), delayed by more than five hours until 4:45pm, and an easyJet flight to Paris (U22107), scheduled for 12:30pm, which was cancelled. Another Ryanair service to Gdansk, Poland (FR4094), was delayed by nearly six hours, pushing its departure to 7:00pm.
Long-haul and major European carriers, including British Airways, Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines, and Finnair, also reported significant delays on key routes. Flight tracking service Flightradar confirmed that Runway 05L/23R at Manchester Airport was closed due to the surface failure.
The disruption comes just days before the airport’s busiest Christmas travel period, during which more than 1.5 million passengers are expected to pass through Manchester Airport between December 19 and January 4.
