500 pax stranded on aircraft overnight in Munich after ground staff go home  

Passengers on several outbound flights were forced to spend the night onboard aircraft at Munich Airport (MUC) on February 22, 2026, because the airport had closed and bus drivers had already gone home when their departures were cancelled.  

Initial reports focused on flight LH2446 bound for Copenhagen-Kastrup (CPH). The flight, operated by an A320neo with 123 passengers onboard, had been scheduled to depart at 21:30 local time. However, the departure was delayed multiple times due to snowfall in Munich. 

Passengers remained on the plane in the expectation that it would be possible to take off before the start of the night curfew, which prevents aircraft operations from taking place at Munich airport after midnight. Despite the airline reportedly having obtained an extension window until 01:00, the aircraft was unable to take off within the slotted time window and at around 02:00 the crew informed the passengers that the departure was not possible. 

To their surprise, the passengers also learned that it was not possible to disembark the aircraft until early in the morning because ground transportation was unavailable. This was due to the airport’s bus drivers having finished their shifts and gone home. 

Passengers interviewed by German and Danish media explained that the overnight wait onboard the aircraft was made particularly uncomfortable due to the lack of food, blankets and other amenities, items that would not be available on an aircraft originally scheduled to operate a 90-minute segment.  

Passengers were finally able to disembark when the ground services morning shift began and were able to continue their journey at around 06:00 local time. 

Later it also emerged that four other flights from Munich Airport, two operated by Lufthansa and another two by Air Dolomiti, were equally affected by the situation. The combined number of passengers affected was around 500.  

According to German news channel RTL, in addition to the Copenhagen service, the affected flights were LH 768 to Singapore (SIN), LH 1646 to Gdansk (GDN), EN 8016 to Graz (GRZ) and EN 8206 to Venice (VCE). 

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