Thousands disrupted as Stansted runway shuts

Three Ryanair aircraft and one easyJet plane were diverted to other airports

Line call: departing flights from Stansted were delayed by up to 90 minutes (Simon Calder)

Thousands of passengers have had their flights disrupted by emergency work on the runway at Stansted airport.

Arrivals and departures came to an abrupt halt at 9.10am when a problem was identified on the single runway at the Essex airport – which is the fourth-busiest in Britain.

It re-opened at 10.03, by which time dozens of flights had been diverted or delayed – the vast majority of them on Ryanair.

Inbound Ryanair flights from Lisbon, Lamezia Terme and Oslo landed at Luton, before making the short flight to Stansted around two hours behind schedule.

An easyJet service from Amsterdam landed at Southend.

Departing Ryanair flights to Bologna, Bucharest, Milan, and Rome were delayed by 90 minutes or more, as was an easyJet departure to Glasgow.

As many flights to and from Stansted are scheduled with minimal “padding”, there will be knock-on delays through the day.

A spokesperson for the airport said: “Aircraft were temporarily held from departing or arriving at London Stansted this morning to allow for minor runway surface works to be safely carried out.

“Four arriving aircraft were diverted to other airports during this period but will now return to Stansted.

“We apologies for the inconvenience this essential safety work may have caused to passengers.”

Stansted is part of the same group as Manchester airport, which experienced around 100 cancellations on Sunday and Monday due to fuel supply problems.