© RTL Mobile Reporter
On Friday evening, Findel Airport had to be shut the runway due to damages, resulting in multiple delays, flight diversions, and cancellations.
Lux-Airport confirmed on Friday at around 9.30pm that the runway is operational again, but only in a reduced-length capacity.
Alexander Flassak, CEO of Lux-Airport, stated that the issue – if confirmed to be significant – should be fixable overnight. Scheduled maintenance work on the runway was already planned for the night leading into Saturday.
Tom Goris of Lux-Airport explained that damages had been reported in the middle of the runway by an inspection team at around 7pm, resulting in the immediate closure as a precautionary safety measure.
Flight operations disrupted
The last plane to depart before the disruption was a 6:25 pm flight to Paris, while the final arrival was a flight from Venice that landed at 6.20 pm. Following the closure, several inbound flights were affected: a Swiss flight from Zurich and TAP and EasyJet flights from Porto were all diverted to Brussels, while a Luxair service from Milan Malpensa was rerouted to Saarbrücken.
The biggest priority, according to Goris, is to now relocate all diverted planes back to Findel airport so that weekend travel can continue as normal.
More than 1,000 passengers were affected, confirmed Luxair CEO Gilles Feith.
Seven flights were cancelled, but in collaboration with Lux-Airport, all aircraft still in the air were able to land despite the partial operation of the runway. Feith thanked all staff involved for its 'excellent teamwork,' and urged passengers to remain patient as they 'look for the 'best possible solutions'.
