The rules are the rules (especially in Germany), but this has to be one of the rougher curfew-related diversions we’ve seen in some time.
A Ryanair plane’s midnight curfew diversion to Hannover
This incident happened on Sunday, January 5, 2025, and involves Ryanair flight FR2501, scheduled to fly from Gran Canaria (LPA) to Berlin (BER). The flight was operated by a three-year-old Boeing 737 MAX 8-200 with the registration code 9H-VUR.
The 2,248-mile flight is ordinarily scheduled to depart at 4:50PM and arrive at 10:50PM, so the flight has a block time of five hours, given the one-hour time change. However, the flight was running behind schedule on this day, due to a late inbound aircraft. So the plane only ended up pushing back at 6:32PM, and taking off at 6:40PM.
A delay of just under 90 minutes might not sound that bad, except for on one major issue — Berlin Airport has a strict midnight curfew, and no planes can land after that time, until it’s lifted at 5AM.
So it was a race against the clock. They needed to land in a flight time of under 4hr20min in order to beat the curfew. For what it’s worth, over the past couple of weeks, the actual flight time ranged anywhere from 4hr29min to 5hr6min. So the pilots were hauling you-know-what, and seemed to be making really good time.
Clearly they thought they were planning on landing in Berlin, because the crew descended, the landing gear was deployed, and the plane made it all the way to 1,225 feet, just a few miles from the airport… and then the clock struck midnight, and the airport closed. Below is the exact position of the aircraft at 12AM, just to give you a sense of how close it was.
Clearly there’s zero flexibility with that curfew, so at that point the aircraft had to divert to another airport without a curfew. So the decision was made to instead head to Hannover, 162 miles away, as that’s a 24/7 airport.
It was a pretty straight shot to Hannover, and the plane touched down there at 12:36AM.
From Hannover, passengers were reportedly loaded onto a buses, where they had a three hour drive to Berlin. I have to imagine it must have been 5-6AM by the time passengers reached their destinations. Talk about a long travel day. Given the duty of care that airlines have in Europe, I have to imagine that Ryanair arranged the bus so it wouldn’t have to pay for hotel rooms for all passengers, since this would keep them moving.
Hannover isn’t a typical destination for Ryanair, so I can’t imagine the logistics were super easy. The aircraft ended up being repositioned to Berlin in the morning, taking off at 9:37AM, and landing at 10:13AM.
Oh man, this situation just sucks…
I understand why airports have curfews, since it can obviously make a difference in the quality of life of the people living around the airport. I also understand why they need to be strict curfews, because once you start having flexibility, it becomes a slippery slope. Like, if you officially have a two-minute grace period, then the question becomes if there should be an additional one-minute grace period, for a plane landing at 12:03AM.
At the same time, when you step back, you can’t help but just think how absurd this can be on a case-by-case basis. The plane was already on final approach and had its gear down, and probably created more noise in the area by discontinuing its landing, as the engines revved up at a low altitude. Think of the incremental emissions, not to mention time wasted, by not having flexibility here.
But ultimately this situation is Ryanair’s fault, for scheduling very tight turns, and scheduling a flight that arrives in Berlin close to the curfew, with little room for delays.
Honestly, I’m surprised the Ryanair jet made it as close to Berlin as it did. As mentioned above, it had 4hr20min to touch down in Berlin, while the previous shortest flight time in recent weeks was 4hr29min. I suspect that Ryanair knew from before takeoff that a diversion was likely, but still found that to be the better option.
If the flight had simply been canceled, Ryanair would’ve had to pay for hotels and meals for all passengers, not to mention the plane would’ve been even more out of sequence. Meanwhile by keeping passengers moving, the airline got out of paying for hotels. At least passengers are entitled to 400 EUR compensation each, in line with EU261 regulations.
Bottom line
Passengers traveling from Gran Canaria to Berlin had quite the unfortunate diversion. The flight was delayed on departure, and then missed the Berlin Airport curfew by a matter of seconds. The flight then diverted to Hannover, and passengers were put on buses, to complete a three-hour drive to Berlin. The only good news for passengers is that they’re each entitled to 400 EUR compensation.
What do you make of this Ryanair diversion?
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