Severe weather has triggered a major travel disruption at Birmingham Airport, forcing a halt to all incoming flights and causing widespread diversions and delays for passengers.
Radar Failure Halts All Arrivals
The disruption began on Sunday evening, January 11, 2026, and continued into the early hours of Monday morning. A power outage, directly caused by the ongoing wet and windy conditions, knocked out the radar system serving the airport. This technical failure meant that all arrivals were suspended, with only departing flights able to operate during the incident.
Flights Diverted Across the Country
The consequences for travellers were immediate and significant. At least 12 flights were diverted to alternative airports across England. Affected passengers found themselves landing at airports including:
- London Stansted
- East Midlands Airport
- Liverpool John Lennon Airport
Other services faced cancellations or delays of up to four hours. The first diversions were reported from as early as 7.45pm on Sunday.
Second Major Disruption in Three Days
This incident marks the second time in just three days that severe weather has caused major operational issues at the Midlands travel hub. It follows the chaos caused by Storm Goretti on Friday, January 9, which forced the airport to suspend all runway operations due to heavy snowfall.
Engineers from the National Air Traffic Services (NATS) worked urgently with the National Grid to restore power to the radar. A NATS spokesperson confirmed: "We have restored our radar serving Birmingham Airport following an earlier power outage caused by bad weather and it is now operating normally again."
The spokesperson added: "We are working closely with the Airport as they resume their air traffic service and apologise to passengers who are affected by this issue." The airport had previously advised passengers affected by the snow on Friday to contact their airlines directly for flight status updates.
