Disruption at Eindhoven Airport; All flights halted

All flights to and from Eindhoven Airport were put on hold on Wednesday morning as a technical issue took the airport offline. The problem was not expected to be resolved until at least the early afternoon.

“Air traffic is currently not possible at Eindhoven Airport due to a malfunction. The cause is being investigated,” the airport wrote in a short statement at about 8 a.m.

The first flights from Eindhoven Airport typically depart from 7:00 a.m. “We discovered the malfunction when starting up. As a result, no flights have departed today,” an airport spokesperson told NOS.

At 8:30 a.m., the Royal Air Force reported on X that a network issue seemed to be behind the disruption. “It is still unclear when the disruption will be fixed. We are working hard on a solution,” said the Air Force, which also uses the airport.

The facility was not likely to reopen for flights until close to 1 p.m. local time, according to European air traffic center Eurocontrol. They attributed the cause to air traffic control equipment, saying “high delays” were likely.

Some 58 flights were scheduled to land in Eindhoven on Wednesday, including 21 due to arrive before 1 p.m. So far, Transavia has canceled four flights, and two Ryanair flights were diverted to Düsseldorf, Germany. These include Ryanair flight 5268 from Seville and flight 3542 from Ibiza.

Of the 57 scheduled departures for Wednesday, 24 were due to take off before 1 p.m. Five of these have been canceled, including four from Transavia and one from Ryanair. All morning flights scheduled to depart by 10:05 a.m. are listed as delayed.

Travelers were left wondering what was going on. “I only received a text message from TUI in which they apologized for the inconvenience,” Nanda Elias (26), who was supposed to board a flight to Tenerife on Wednesday morning, told Eindhovens Dagblad. “They offered a free voucher of 10 euros to get something to eat and drink.”

Ryanair is already getting people on alternative flights from other airports, Elias added. “They will be picked up at 9:00 a.m. and taken to the airport in Düsseldorf.”

One woman who spoke to Omroep Brabant said the airport had left her in the dark, not providing any concrete information even though she arrived there around 5:30 a.m. for a flight. "I was supposed to fly to Lisbon and return on Thursday. I just called the travel agency for more information. They say they see that I can board since a quarter to eight, but that is not the case. And I can't hear anything here.”

"We haven't been told what's going on for several hours,” another passenger told Omroep Brabant.

Schiphol Airport was also expected to face “moderate delays” in the morning, according to Eurocontrol. The Amsterdam-area airspace was facing capacity issues, leading authorities to restrict flight arrivals.

It was not immediately clear if this was to create necessary space to allow for the diversion of flights in the air which were destined for Eindhoven.