Passengers arrive at Belfast airport despite disruption

Passengers travelling to Belfast City Airport have been making their way home for Christmas despite disruption. The airport reopened to flights on Monday, a day after its runway closed when a plane was damaged in a "hard landing". The plane, operated by Emerald Airlines for Aer Lingus, had travelled from Edinburgh to Belfast with four crew and no passengers on board. A number of flights had been cancelled on Monday morning, with routes affected including those to Birmingham, Leeds Bradford and London City airports. The aircraft had to be recovered from the runway after the emergency incident which began at about 16:00 GMT on Sunday. Pictures from the scene suggest the plane's nose wheel collapsed during landing but no injuries were reported among the onboard crew. The incident is being investigated by the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB). The plane was a positioning flight. This is when nearly-empty planes are flown to the airport of its next flight without any passengers on board. An airport spokesperson said: "Passengers impacted by Sunday's runway closure, or those due to travel today should check the status of their flight with the airline before making their way to the airport."<br/>