Wave of delays and cancellations strands travellers at five major Italian airports

A fresh bout of Europe-wide air-traffic disruption left thousands of passengers stuck in Italy on 15–16 April, with data compiled by aviation analytics firm Cirium showing 356 flight delays and 54 outright cancellations across Rome Fiumicino, Milan Malpensa, Bologna, Naples and Venice. Travel trade outlet Travel and Tour World reports that services operated by Lufthansa, KLM, United Airlines and several low-cost carriers were hardest hit. The cascading delays were triggered by a combination of factors: a rolling French air-traffic-control work-to-rule that forced aircraft onto longer routings over Italy, patchy implementation of the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) that is lengthening ground-time during turn-arounds, and thunderstorms over central Europe.



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While conditions normalised by the early hours of 17 April, the backlog has spilled into the weekend, with airlines warning of residual knock-on effects. Rome’s airport operator ADR said around 18,000 passengers experienced missed connections or overnight diversions. Hotels near Fiumicino reported occupancy spikes, and taxi queues stretched to the multi-storey car-park despite additional buses laid on by local authorities. According to the Italian consumer association Codacons, stranded passengers could be entitled to compensation of up to €600 under EU261 rules if the delays are deemed within the airlines’ control. Corporate travel managers told Il Corriere della Sera that staff heading to client meetings in Milan and Turin were re-routed via rail or virtual conferencing. Logistics firms also flagged shortages of temperature-controlled freight capacity because long-haul wide-bodies were among the aircraft most frequently delayed. A meeting between ENAC (Italy’s civil-aviation authority) and the main carriers is scheduled for 18 April to discuss contingency plans ahead of the Pentecost and early-summer holiday peaks. Airlines are pushing for temporary exemptions that would allow them to use bigger aircraft on domestic trunk routes without additional slot requests, but unions representing ground handlers warn the system is already overstretched.