Dubai: Eleven flights to Dubai International Airport were diverted on Sunday evening due to an electrical problem at the airport, operator Dubai Airports confirmed.

A spokesperson told Gulf News that the disruption was “brief,” with normal operations already restored at Dubai International.

“Dubai Airports can confirm that normal operations at Dubai International were briefly disrupted on Sunday evening due to a technical problem involving the airfield lighting, leading to the diversion of 11 inbound flights,” the Dubai Airports spokesperson said.

“Dubai Airports worked with airlines and other service partners to restore normal operations within the hour.”

It was not immediately clear how many passengers were affected by the diversion or whether other flights were delayed.

Online reports on social media websites said that Dubai International faced an electrical issue that led to some flights being held, adding that some flights including those operated by Emirates and flydubai were being diverted to Dubai’s second airport, Al Maktoum International.

Diverted

Emirates and flydubai confirmed that the electrical issue at Dubai International disrupted a number of their flights on Sunday night and caused some delays and temporary closure of the airport.

A technical problem had affected the runway lighting system at Dubai’s main passenger hub. Some of the incoming flights — seven of them are operated by flydubai and the others by Emirates — were diverted to Al Maktoum International Airport.

“Due to the temporary closure of Dubai International Airport on 17 June 2018, a small number of Emirates flights were diverted to Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC). The affected flights continued their journey to Dubai International Airport (DXB) as soon as the airport reopened,” a spokesperson told Gulf News.

Delays

Airlines could not confirm how many passengers were affected, but a spokesperson for flydubai assured that they had tried to minimize the delays.

“Seven of our flights to Dubai were diverted. We worked hard so that passengers could continue their journey to Dubai International and onwards and to minimize disruption for departing passengers,” the spokesperson for flydubai said.

“All the flights diverted to Al Maktoum International and our operations returned to schedule last night.”