Greece Flights Start to Resume After Radio Communication Fault

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Grounded Greek Airspace Restores Operations After Technical Radio Failure Disrupts International and Middle East Flights

Flights in and out of Greece resumed on Sunday evening, January 4, after a widespread radio communication fault grounded air traffic across the country earlier in the day, causing major travel disruptions for passengers and international carriers, including those from the UAE. 

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Air traffic was halted on Sunday after Greece’s air-traffic communication systems experienced a sudden collapse of radio frequencies, forcing authorities to suspend arrivals and departures at airports nationwide and sharply reduce capacity in Greek airspace. The fault affected central radio-frequency systems at key control centres, including Athens and Macedonia, leaving skies over Greece noticeably emptier compared with neighbouring regions.

Officials initially restricted operations to overflights and managed aircraft already airborne using backup procedures while engineers worked to restore full communications. Greece’s Civil Aviation Authority and transport officials said the technical issue had been resolved by Sunday night, allowing normal flight operations to resume. 

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Impact on UAE and International Flights

Travelers and airlines from the UAE and beyond were among those affected by the disruption, with some flights delayed, cancelled, or rerouted to avoid Greek airspace. One Emirates flight was forced to divert over Bulgaria after encountering a communication fault, and Aegean Airlines warned that reduced capacity was expected to cause ongoing delays and cancellations to and from Greek airports. 

Despite the disruption, Greek authorities emphasised there was no compromise to passenger safety throughout the incident. Experts have noted that clearing the backlog of delayed flights could take several days as operations return to normal.

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Industry analysts have also pointed to long-standing underinvestment in Greece’s aviation infrastructure as a contributing factor to the fault, suggesting the outage has highlighted vulnerabilities in communications systems that may require more robust upgrades going forward.

Travelers are advised to check with airlines for the latest flight information as schedules continue to recover from the disruption.