Seven flights were diverted to nearby airports and 17 others were held in the skies over Greater Manchester after a person entered the airfield at Manchester Airport late on Friday, August 21. Police were called shortly after 11.20pm following reports of a man 'encroaching' onto the airside area.
Diversions and delays
Flights were diverted to East Midlands, Liverpool, Birmingham and Leeds Bradford airports. Among those affected were TUI flights from Boa Vista in Cape Verde, Corfu in Greece and Naples in Italy, which were sent to East Midlands Airport near Nottingham. An easyJet flight from Zurich and a Ryanair flight from Agadir in Morocco were diverted to Birmingham, while another easyJet flight from Barcelona was diverted to Liverpool. A Jet2 flight from Faro in Portugal was diverted to Leeds Bradford Airport.
Arrivals were 'stacking' at Manchester Airport while the incident was dealt with. Departures were also delayed, including a TUI flight to Corfu which took off at 12.14am instead of 10.30pm, a Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul which departed at 12.15am instead of 10.55pm, and a Ryanair flight to Dublin which left just after 1am with a delay of two hours and six minutes.
Incident resolved
A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Police confirmed officers responded to reports of a man located airside at around 11.21pm. He was later taken to hospital 'for assessment'. A spokesperson for Manchester Airport confirmed the incident was resolved, with flights now back to normal and a 'temporary fix' put in place following the security breach.
Manchester Airport is the third busiest airport in the UK and the busiest outside London. Tourists returning from holidays abroad were among those affected by the delays and diversions.
