Belfast City Airport was shut and flights cancelled or diverted after an Aer Lingus Regional aircraft crash landed in bad weather.
The ATR turboprop operated by Emerald Airlines was on a positioning flight from Edinburgh with no passengers on board on Sunday afternoon.
The runway was closed for the rest of the day and passengers were advised to contact their airlines.
The airport reopened this morning but with flights either heavily delayed or cancelled.
Aer Lingus, KLM, British Airways and EasyJet flights due to depart from the city airport were cancelled due to the incident, impacting passengers trying to get to cities including Amsterdam, London, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool.
A number of inbound flights were diverted to Belfast International airport, including BA from London City and Aer Lingus from Leeds Bradford.
But the airport at Aldergrove warned it has limited capacity during the busy pre-Christmas travel period.
A further five flights were diverted to Dublin airport.
Belfast City confirmed that a flight operated by Emerald Airlines “had an incident” on landing at around 4pm yesterday.
“This was a positioning fight with no passengers but four crew members onboard. The airport’s emergency procedures were enacted.”
A spokesperson for Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue (NIFRS) told the Belfast Telegraph: “On attending crews encountered an aircraft which had experienced a nose wheel collapse on landing.”
NIFRS said on X/Twitter: “NIFRS attended an incident at Belfast City Airport at 16.15 on Sunday 22nd December. Four appliances, a specialist rescue team, and commend support unit and three officers were on the scene. At 16.34 NIFRS scaled back our response.”
A spokesperson for Emerald Airlines said the “positioning flight, EA701P, with no passengers on board, flying from Edinburgh to Belfast City airport, 22nd December 2024, experienced a hard landing upon arriving into Belfast City airport due to adverse weather conditions.”
The operator of Aer Lingus Regional services is serving a network of 10 routes from Belfast City this winter.
Meanwhile, a Heathrow spokesperson said “a small number” of flights had been cancelled on Sunday “due to strong winds and airspace restrictions” amid reports of 100 services being affected.