Geneva airport closes ‘due to technical issue’ with thousands of passengers diverted and delayed

Inbound easyJet flights from London Gatwick, Birmingham and Manchester have been affected

easyJet aircraft at Geneva airport (file photo) (Simon Calder)

Thousands of passengers flying to and from Geneva are facing severe disruption after the airport closed “due to a technical issue”.

Many inbound flights were forced to divert, including easyJet arrivals from London Gatwick, Birmingham and Manchester all diverted. The first two landed at Basel, while the third touched down in Lyon.

The airline is telling passengers: “Geneva is currently experiencing an Air Traffic Control (ATC) radar failure. As a result, ATC regulations have been implemented, and disruption is expected at both Geneva and Lyon airports.

“Flights travelling to, from, or over this airspace may experience delays and disruption too. Even if your flight is not arriving into or departing from Geneva or Lyon, you may still be affected if your planned route would normally overfly the impacted area.”/

Other flights returned to their starting points, including SAS from Copenhagen and Lufthansa from Frankfurt.

A Geneva airport statement online read: “Due to a technical issue, takeoffs and landings are currently suspended. Flights are expected to resume gradually: at 50 per cent capacity until 11am, then at 80 per cent.”

The diverted easyJet flights are now flying on to Geneva. Some departures, including to Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Zurich, have been cancelled. Others are delayed, with some UK-bound flights an hour late or more.

The tracking service Flightradar24 posted: “Geneva airport is currently experiencing average departure delays of 40 minutes. This is due to an earlier radar failure, affecting the entire Geneva airspace sector (LSAG). The issue now appears to have been resolved.”

Under air passengers’ rights rules, travellers whose flights are delayed by two hours or more may be entitled to refreshments while they wait. Those whose flights are cancelled must be flown to their destination as soon as possible on any airline, and be provided with meals and hotels until they get there.

Cash compensation is not payable as the airlines were not responsible for the disruption.

Read more: Tourists ditching US trips after fury over Trump and ICE, poll suggests