Thousands Stranded in Europe Due to Greek Air Traffic Issues

Major Problems in Air Traffic

Thousands of passengers are stranded across Europe after a communication failure forced Greece to close its airspace, resulting in massive cancellations and delays. Authorities are trying to determine the reason behind the radio communications disruption that occurred on Sunday morning, leading to a temporary suspension of arrivals and departures.

Athens' main airport is among the worst affected, while the airport in Thessaloniki has been completely closed. The timing of this disruption has raised concerns that tourists may not be able to return home before the start of the work week.

“I was supposed to fly to London, via Stockholm, with SAS,” said a passenger at Athens International Airport. “I work at Newport Hospital tomorrow morning. I won’t make it on time; I don’t know what else to say.”

More than 90 flights have been impacted at Athens Airport alone, although some flights have managed to resume operations. An airport source mentioned that 35 aircraft are now allowed to depart per hour, but arrivals remain suspended.

In the chaos, some passengers complained about the lack of information. “We have no updates. We were told we would be able to leave, but I don’t believe that’s true. I don’t see my flight on the departures board, and I should be leaving shortly.”

The issue causing the outage is believed to be related to the radio system used by air traffic controllers to communicate with aircraft. Panagiotis Psarros, president of the Greek Air Traffic Controllers Association, explained that all frequencies “suddenly went down.”

Italy, Turkey, and Cyprus are providing assistance to Greece in managing the situation.