Chaos grips UK airports as storm strands travelers across Europe

Travelers flying to the UK and Ireland are being forced into lengthy diversions and even to different countries as storm Isha throws planes off course.

Passengers on Ryanair Flight FR633 had an experience that ultimately ended up being a 10-hour trip to another destination. The Copenhagen to Dublin flight, normally two hours long, diverted to Manchester before a four-hour stopover. In a second attempt to reach Dublin, it circled for three hours, before being diverted to Liverpool.

The UK’s meteorological agency said in a post on X that Isha was bringing heavy rain and strong winds to many parts of the country. Northeast Scotland was placed under the highest weather alert for “extremely strong” winds that could endanger lives and cause structural damage to buildings.

Passengers onboard Ryanair Flight 5911 to Dublin from Lanzarote in Spain diverted to Bordeaux in France, making that a six-hour trip again not to their final destination.

Another Ryanair service, Flight FR2970 from Tenerife, another one of the Canary Islands in Spain, attempted to land in Edinburgh before diverting to Cologne in Germany.

Ryanair is Europe’s largest discount carrier and is facing an outsized impact, not least because it operates from airports across the UK and Ireland.

A Wizz Air flight bound for London from Krakow in Poland, meanwhile, became a four-hour travail after it was diverted to Eindhoven in the Netherlands following three landing attempts at London’s Gatwick airport.

Dublin Airport said in a social media post that while it remains open, Isha is posing a “significant challenge” to both departing and arriving flights. As of 9:30 p.m. local time on Sunday, airlines had canceled 148 flights with 35 diversions. The airport said it would be open Monday although high winds remain.