A power supply failure at the Barcelona-El Prat control tower temporarily halted takeoffs and landings on Wednesday, disrupting operations at one of Spain’s busiest airports. Aena restored full electrical supply later in the afternoon and movements resumed progressively, but the outage still triggered delays, diversions and cancellations across the network.
The airport stopped movements for safety while technicians fixed the fault, then reopened under spacing procedures as air traffic controllers managed the restart. Aena’s updates indicated the issue was being resolved at 14:18 and that power was fully restored around 15:30. By then, wider operational impact was already visible, with 10 diversions reported from 1,124 scheduled operations for the day.
Ryanair later said the disruption affected nearly 6,000 passengers in its operation, while secondary coverage pointed to at least five cancellations alongside the diversions and delays. Some reports indicated knock-on disruption could last until midnight, reflecting the strain that even a localized infrastructure failure can place on a major European hub during the summer travel peak.