Ryanair FR2955 Left Dublin for Bristol and Landed in Alicante: What the Tracking Data Shows

A Ryanair Boeing 737-800 flying as FR2955 left Dublin for Bristol late on Saturday, October 24, 2026, and landed in Alicante, Spain, at 2:13 am local time on Sunday. Alicante is about 910 miles (1,470 km) from Bristol, and reports blamed Storm Boelo’s winds for the diversion.

Flight-tracking data tells a more complicated story. The jet never descended below about 20,000 feet near Bristol, and at least three other Ryanair flights landed at Bristol Airport that same evening, two of them in the 40 minutes after FR2955 turned south.

A day that started with Newquay

The aircraft was 9H-QDK, according to ADS-B Exchange’s record of the flight. Earlier that evening the same jet had flown Ryanair FR2954 from Alicante to Newquay in Cornwall, leaving the gate about an hour late at 6:28 pm Spanish time, FlightAware and FlightStats data show.

Over Cornwall it held at 25,000 feet for about 20 minutes, from roughly 7:38 pm UK time, without starting a descent. FlightStats lists the flight as diverted to Dublin, where it landed at 8:43 pm.

Newquay’s weather report for 7:20 pm gave a wind from 240 degrees at 32 knots, gusting 45 knots. That is about 60 degrees off the line of the airport’s single runway, 12/30, which works out to a crosswind of almost 40 knots in the gusts.

The Dublin departure

After nearly two hours on the ground in Dublin, 9H-QDK took off again at 10:35 pm, according to FlightAware. Ireland and the UK were on the same clock that night, before the clocks went back early on Sunday.

The jet climbed to 27,000 feet and headed southeast toward Bristol, then began a descent. At 10:58 pm it was at about 20,000 feet over South Wales, about 60 miles (95 km) west-northwest of Bristol.

Within three minutes it turned due south and climbed to 33,000 feet. It flew one full loop over the English Channel off the Devon and Dorset coast, then set course across France for Spain.

FR2955 touched down in Alicante at 2:13 am Spanish time, 2 hours 38 minutes after leaving Dublin. The diversion was first reported by AIRLIVE, which said the crew broke off the approach above 20,000 feet because of the gusts.

Bristol was still landing Ryanair flights

Bristol’s weather was rough earlier in the evening. At 9:50 pm the airport reported a wind from 270 degrees at 30 knots, gusting 41 knots, with rain and low cloud.

By 10:50 pm, minutes before FR2955 turned away, the wind had eased to 14 knots gusting 24 knots from 250 degrees. That is close to the line of Bristol’s east-west runway, 09/27, so most of it was a headwind rather than a crosswind.

FlightAware shows Ryanair’s scheduled Dublin-Bristol service, FR508, landing at Bristol at about 10:24 pm. FR7728 from Palma followed at 11:19 pm and FR9335 from Girona at 11:38 pm.

The flight number itself is also unusual. Tracking sites show the Dublin departure under the callsign RYR2955, but FlightStats lists FR2955 that day as a Malta Air service from Malta to Charleroi, which suggests the Dublin flight was an extra rotation rather than a timetabled one.

Why a crew would pick Alicante

Ryanair has not explained the decision. The Mirror said it had asked the airline for comment, and AeroCorner found no Ryanair or Bristol Airport statement on the flight.

A diversion is rarely about the weather alone. The crew and the airline’s operations control weigh fuel, the weather at each alternate, and the legal limits on the crew’s duty day, as our flight diversion explainer sets out.

Those duty limits come from the EU’s flight-time rules, which also set minimum rest before the next duty. By the time 9H-QDK reached Wales, its evening had already taken it from Spain to Cornwall, into a hold, to Dublin and back into the air.

Aircraft position matters too. ADS-B Exchange data shows 9H-QDK leaving Alicante again shortly after 8 am on Sunday, bound for Budapest, so ending the night in Spain kept it in place for its next morning’s flying.

Whether crew hours, aircraft planning or a forecast for Bristol drove the call is not known. The tracking data shows only that the jet stayed high and that Bristol was landing Ryanair traffic at the time.

Part of a weekend of Boelo diversions

The Met Office’s storm list shows Boelo was named on October 22, the second named storm of the 2026/27 season. Ryanair warned that some UK flights could be disrupted on October 24 and 25, and said affected passengers would be contacted through its app.

It came hours after another long Ryanair diversion. Earlier on Saturday, Ryanair FR7644 from Faro gave up on Edinburgh and flew about 600 miles to Oslo.

On Sunday, Boelo’s westerly winds cut the number of usable runways at Amsterdam Schiphol, and KLM cancelled 149 flights.