Several UK and Ireland flights had to be diverted to France and Germany after Storm Isha caused havoc. Passengers traveling to destinations such as Dublin, Bristol, and London found themselves stranded in airports abroad. Edinburgh-bound planes had to land in Cologne and some domestic route passengers discovered they had left their passports at home, meaning they had to sleep on terminal floors overnight.
EasyJet stated that, as the weather remained unchanged and winds repeatedly proved too high for safe landing, many flights had to be delayed overnight. The company had been doing all that was possible to minimize the impact on its customers by providing accommodation, meals, and services to those stranded without a passport.
Passengers reported having to spend long hours on runways, with some flights eventually being diverted to France and Germany. Olivia Lynes, a young woman traveling from Budapest to Stansted, said the experience was “awful,” with no information at any point, and being told “just by the way, we are half on the way to Budapest,” before eventually landing in Manchester and returning to Budapest at 5:00am.
Meanwhile, passengers like Kerry Hamilton and Luke Bromage-Henry spent the night in Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, sleeping on the terminal floor. Bromage-Henry, whose flight from Jersey was redirected to France after a failed landing at Gatwick, described it as his “worst trip to Paris ever,” with buses dropping passengers off at the transfer terminal and “every man for himself” from thereon.
The UK has recently seen its strongest winds in 10 to 20 years due to Storm Isha, which impacted various travel routes at around the same time. Ryanair flights from locations such as Seville and Tenerife that were headed for Edinburgh ended up at Germany’s Cologne Bonn Airport. Overall, both EasyJet and Ryanair attributed such disruptions to the weather, which was outside of their control
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