Three Tui flights were diverted away from Manchester after thunderstorms circled the airport, causing a brief disruption for planes coming in to land.
Two flights operated by Tui, one arriving from Thessaloniki, Greece, and another from Malta, were due to land at Manchester Airport at the same time, 2.10pm on Thursday 11 September.
Due to thunderstorms around the airport, some flights circled the area waiting for the weather to improve.
The two Tui flights did not have enough fuel to circle the airport and wait, so a decision was made to divert them both to Newcastle’s airport, a spokesperson for Manchester Airport told The Independent.
A third Tui flight, due to arrive from Corfu at 1.50pm, was also diverted to Newcastle due to the storms.
The planes were refuelled at Newcastle, and when the storms passed, they were then sent back to Manchester.
Data from Flightrader shows the Tui flight from Thessaloniki eventually landed in Manchester at 5.43pm, over three hours after it was due to arrive.
A Royal Jordanian flight also did not have enough fuel to circle the airport, but instead of a division, the plane jumped the queue and made a priority landing at Manchester, the Manchester Airport spokesperson added.
Aside from the diversions, the airport spokesperson said the disruption caused by the thunderstorms was fairly minimal and the storm passed quickly, meaning normal operations were restored within a matter of minutes.
Storms and other types of weather are very common causes of flight disruption.
When Storm Floris battered parts of the UK last month many flights were forced to divert.
Three aircraft – two British Airways flights from London Heathrow and one KLM flight from Amsterdam – attempted to land in Aberdeen but were forced to return to their departure airports due to the strong winds.
In June, turbulence caused by a storm on a Ryanair flight from Berlin to Milan was so bad that it injured nine people.
The flight was forced to make an emergency landing in southern Germany after storms, high winds and hail caused extreme turbulence.
Three people were hospitalised, while others who were injured were released after receiving outpatient treatment.
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