Athens Airport, & Greek airspace empties.
Credit:
MM_vision – Shutterstock / FlightRadar
A serious technical issue in Greece’s air traffic control system caused widespread disruption to flights nationwide on Sunday, January 4, grounding hundreds of departures and arrivals, diverting inbound aircraft, and stranding thousands of passengers during the busy post-festive period.
The issue originated early in the morning with a failure in the central radio frequency systems at the Athens and Macedonia Area Control Centres, operated by the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA). The systems are essential for communication between pilots and controllers, as all aircraft entering Greek airspace must establish contact with the Athens Flight Information Region (FIR), a vast area covering much of the Aegean and key international routes.
Flights rerouted, landings and takeoffs halted
As a safety precaution, authorities immediately suspended all takeoffs from Greek airports and imposed severe restrictions on landings. Overflights, planes transiting Greek airspace without stopping, were allowed to continue in limited capacity. Panagiotis Psaros, president of the Air Traffic Controllers Association, described the outage as unprecedented, saying that preliminary reports suggested a circuit failure, though the exact cause remained under investigation in coordination with external agencies.
Airspace closed – flights cancelled
The disruption brought operations at Athens International Airport “Eleftherios Venizelos” and regional airports to a near standstill, emptying Greek skies as seen on flight-tracking platforms. Major carriers bore the brunt: Aegean Airlines, Greece’s flagship carrier, cancelled dozens of flights, primarily to and from Athens, saying there was a “significant reduction in capacity within Greek airspace”. British Airways scrapped morning and evening services between Heathrow and Athens, while Ryanair axed routes from Athens to Malta, Rome, and Bologna. EasyJet informed passengers of cancellations due to the “airspace closure”, classifying it as an extraordinary circumstance beyond their control.
Inbound flights faced diversions to alternative airports: some bound for Athens landed in Rome or Dubrovnik, Thessaloniki services diverted to Budapest or Tirana in Albania, and a Vilnius-to-Heraklion flight ended up in Larnaca, Cyprus.
Flights gradually restored late Sunday
By Sunday afternoon, partial restoration began as controllers switched to backup frequencies. The HCAA and Athens Airport announced a gradual release of flights based on available capacity, with efforts ongoing for full recovery.
Under EU passenger rights regulations, affected travellers are entitled to re-routing on any available airline, plus meals, accommodation, and refreshments as needed until they reach their destination.
