Manchester Airport Airport Spokesman Reports 25-Minute Closure — Manchester Airport Flight Cancellations

Manchester airport flight cancellations were avoided on June 6 after a small defect was found on one runway during a routine check. The runway closed for about 25 minutes while engineers repaired it, and the airport had reopened it by 5pm.

A Manchester Airport spokesman said no flights were cancelled. The incident did cause a number of short delays, but the affected runway went back into use the same day.

June 6 runway check

The defect was spotted shortly after 4pm during a routine check of the runway surface. Engineers were dispatched soon after, and the repair was carried out quickly enough for the runway to reopen by 5pm.

Manchester Airport has two runways, so the closure affected only part of the airfield. Even so, passengers saw short delays while the repair work was under way.

Manchester Airport January closure

The June incident came after a similar runway problem in January, when one runway at Manchester Airport had to be closed for two hours to fix a pothole. On Friday, January 9, 2026, an airfield staff member spotted a small pothole on Runway 1 at about 2pm.

Runway 1 was immediately closed and services were diverted to Runway 2. The pothole, described as the size of a mobile phone, was fixed and flights were switched back to Runway 1 by 4pm.

The airport opened its second runway at a cost of £172m in 2001, a setup that helped keep disruption limited during the January closure. In June, the same two-runway arrangement meant the problem stayed short-lived, but passengers still faced delays while repairs were made.