NUMEROUS Ryanair flights to Malaga were diverted last night, landing in Alicante and Valencia.
Six Ryanair planes departing from locations across Europe did not end up taking their intended direct route to Malaga – instead they diverted to different areas in Spain whilst other airlines continued to land at Malaga as intended.
One flight from London Stansted was diverted to Valencia after its 17:57pm take off.
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The plane circled over Malaga airport twice before landing in Valencia where passengers waited on the runway for ‘about an hour and a half’ – according to Joshua Keeble, a passenger on the flight.
Keeble told the Olive Press that they were about to disembark the aircraft when the pilot informed them that they could return to Malaga and so – at 12.10am – the flight took off once more.
Updates from the pilot were ‘only occasional’ leading Keeble to feel ‘very confused’ saying, ‘we were not kept in the loop at all’.
Landing in Malaga at 1:14am, over three hours after their scheduled arrival, Keeble and fellow passengers were informed that ‘the reason for the diversion was the weather’.
Yesterday, Spain’s state weather agency Aemet issued a yellow ‘risk’ warning for heavy rain on Costa del Sol and across most of Malaga as Storm Claudia hits the country; this warning has now been extended to Saturday.
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Other Ryanair flights to Malaga last night were diverted to Alicante from Bratislava, Gothenburg, Belfast, Dublin, Lodz and Knock.
The airline has not formally announced the reason for the diversions.
Storm Claudia has also led to air traffic disruptions in the canary islands – numerous flights journeying to this holiday hotspot have been cancelled or diverted over the last forty eight hours.
With persistent and heavy rainfall set to continue, those making trips to Spain could expect further travel chaos in the coming days.
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