Numerous flights across Europe experienced delays or cancellations after a communication system failure in Greece forced a temporary closure of its airspace.
International news agencies reported that tens of thousands of passengers were stranded at various airports across Europe on Sunday, 4 Jan 2026 GMT+7, following a communication failure that compelled Greece to close its airspace, causing widespread cancellations and delays.
Officials are urgently investigating the cause of radio communication interference that occurred on Sunday morning, which led to the temporary suspension of inbound and outbound flights.
Recently, some outbound flights have been allowed to resume service. However, inbound flights remain subject to rerouting or return to their origin airports. Athens Airport was among the hardest hit, while Thessaloniki Airport was completely shut down.
At Athens Airport alone, more than 90 inbound and outbound flights were affected, although some flights have started to resume operations.
An airport staff member told BBC that currently, planes are permitted to take off at a rate of 35 per hour, but inbound flights are still not being accepted.
Earlier, flights departing from Dublin, Barcelona, and Paris were ordered to return to their departure airports, while all flights from Copenhagen and Malta were canceled.
Other inbound flights bound for Athens were placed on standby, while flights arriving at and departing from other Greek airports were also affected. Public broadcaster ERT reported that three flights from Heraklion Airport on Crete, including one destined for Munich, experienced delays.
There were also reports that most inbound flights, if not canceled, were diverted to land in Turkey instead.
This disruption occurred during a peak period of air traffic in and out of Athens, as many travelers were returning from winter holidays. Normally, more than 600 scheduled flights operate daily here.
The chaos is believed to be linked to the radio system used by air traffic controllers to communicate with aircraft in the airspace.
Panagiotis Psarros, president of the Greek Air Traffic Controllers Association, told ERT that all radio frequencies "suddenly disappeared," adding, "We were completely unable to communicate with planes in the sky."
Later, ERT reported that preliminary investigations by Greek security agencies suggest the problem likely stemmed from a failure of a signal tower in the Gerania Mountains near Athens.
Follow international news:https://www.thairath.co.th/news/foreign
Source:bbc