Greek flights resume after radio communication fault that affected Middle East routes

Flights were grounded for several hours on Sunday, causing travel disruption

Travellers at Eleftherios Venizelos Airport in Athens are delayed after Greece suspends flights because of radio communication problems. Reuters

Flights across Greece have slowly resumed after a radio communications collapse caused travel disruption for passengers.

Flights in Greek airspace were grounded on Sunday as air-traffic communication in the southern European country was disrupted by a loss of radio frequencies.

Athens Airport said on Sunday night that the technical fault had been resolved and “flight operations capacity” were restored. It cautioned, however, that travellers could face further delays while the flight backlog is cleared.

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One Emirates flight was rerouted over Bulgaria to avoid Greek airspace, according to a post shared on social media by tracking website Flight Radar. But a representative for the airline described the disruption as minimal.

“Despite the temporary closure of Greek airspace on the morning of January 4, 2026, Emirates flights to and from Athens have been minimally impacted. We continue to monitor developments closely," the representative said. "The safety of our passengers and crew is our highest priority.”

One expert said it could take several days for normal service to be resumed, and travellers were advised to expect a difficult period. “Given the years of chronic underinvestment in its aviation industry, this sudden collapse of radio and communication frequency networks across Greece arguably comes as little surprise,” Saj Ahmad, chief analyst at StrategicAero Research, told The National.

“For the best part of two decades, the economic turmoil that has beset Greece has meant that critical infrastructure such as radio and telecommunications suddenly failing without a backup system in place … travellers are in for a rough couple of days owing to the lack of investment.”

He said many planes were grounded, while others in the air would now be forced to reroute “to try to further minimise delays”. The knock-on effects for delayed and cancelled flights means it would take several days to clear the backlog, he said.

Thousands of passengers and a few hundred flights have already been affected, including those from the UAE and the wider Gulf. However, that number could increase should the situation be prolonged, Mr Ahmad said.

Restrictions were quickly imposed by Greece's civil aviation authority, leaving many flights across the country grounded. Some overflights across Greek and regional airspace were still being ‍serviced, Reuters news agency reported.

Flight Radar shows an average delay of 104 minutes for departures at Athens' Eleftherios Venizelos Airport, while arrivals could expect to be delayed by 40 minutes.

The same website is displaying a map of the current status of flights, which shows Greek airspace almost empty compared to neighbouring countries.

“We would like to inform our passengers that the technical issue affecting the radio-frequency systems of the Hellenic Aviation Service Provider, which has been continuing since the early morning hours, continues to cause a significant reduction in capacity within Greek airspace, resulting in flight delays and/or cancellations to and from Greek airports,” read a statement on social media from Greek-based Aegean Airlines, which has flights scheduled to Athens from Dubai and Abu Dhabi later on Sunday.

“For some reason all frequencies were suddenly lost, we could not communicate with aircraft in the sky,” said Panagiotis Psarros, chairman of the Association of Greek Air Traffic Controllers.

The problem appeared to be caused by a collapse of central radio-frequency systems at the Athens and Macedonia area control systems, the largest air-control facility in the country, based in the Greek capital. It monitors the Athens Flight Information Region, an expanse of airspace under the control of Greek authorities.

“We haven't been informed ⁠about the ‌cause of this problem … certainly the equipment we have is virtually ancient,” Mr Psarros said. "⁠We have raised this many times in the past.”

A ⁠Transport Ministry official told Reuters some planes heading north and east had been allowed to leave Greece. More than 75 were delayed, the official said.

In Israel, an Airports Authority representative said Greek airspace had been closed until 4pm local time (6pm GST), advising travellers to expect delays to arrivals and departures.