Passengers at Airport Nürnberg had to exercise considerable patience on Monday morning. The cause was a "security incident involving an arriving passenger," which necessitated a precautionary evacuation of the terminal, Jan Beinßen, the airport’s press spokesperson, told nordbayern.de on Tuesday upon inquiry. Already on Monday morning, the airport had informed the public via social media, stating: "There are currently delays at the security checks. We ask all passengers for their patience."
The airport spokesperson did not provide further details about the incident, but it had noticeable effects on ongoing operations.
According to the airport, the evacuation began at 10:20 a.m. as a precautionary measure, requiring all travelers to leave the terminal and pass through security checks again. Three aircraft already on the tarmac had to be returned to their original positions, the spokesperson said. Passengers from these planes were also disembarked and subjected to another round of security screening.
Security incident at Airport Nürnberg: Several flights take off significantly delayed
According to Beinßen, the Marabu flight to Tenerife South, originally scheduled to depart at 9:55 a.m., was affected. It eventually took off with a significant delay at 12:36 p.m., according to the airport’s website. The KLM flight to Amsterdam also departed about two hours late instead of the planned 10:05 a.m., as did the Ryanair flight to London, which left at 12:44 p.m. instead of 10:30 a.m. In total, six flights were delayed, the airport reported.
The airport spokesperson emphasized that in such situations, strict procedures are consistently followed: “For the Airport Nürnberg and the responsible authorities, the safety of passengers and staff is the top priority – therefore, clear, standardized processes are implemented and rigorously applied in such cases,” said Deputy Press Officer Jan Beinßen.
On Tuesday at noon, the airport finally gave the all-clear via Facebook and Instagram. Flight operations were back to normal, security checkpoints were open, and there were no longer any extended waiting times, they reported.