All flights canceled from two Manchester Airport terminals until ‘further notice’

All flights departing from Terminals 1 and 2 at Manchester Airport have been canceled after a power cut on Sunday morning.

“Passengers arriving from Terminals 1 and 2 are advised not to travel to the airport until further notice and to contract with their airlines,” an airport statement said.

Manchester Airport also said arriving flights were being diverted to other airports, meaning people collecting passengers at the airport should check with airlines before leaving.

An Etihad Airways flight from Abu Dhabi Zayed International Airport has been diverted to Birmingham Airport.

A Singapore Airlines flight from Houston in the United States was scheduled to fly to Heathrow, while another, from Singapore, was sent to Gatwick.

Emirates, Etihad and Gulf Air operate services from Manchester Terminal 1.

EasyJet, which also operates flights from Terminal 1, said there were “very long queues” due to security reasons and that disruption to baggage handling systems meant passengers could not only board flights with cabin baggage.

“While this is beyond our control, we would like to apologize for any inconvenience experienced as a result,” the airline said.

“We are doing everything we can and working closely with the airport team to minimize disruption.”

Chris Woodroofe, chief executive of Manchester Airport, said he was “truly sorry” for the disruption.

Mr Woodroofe told BBC News that a “fault with a cable caused a power surge which destroyed security systems and baggage screening”.

“When Terminals 1 and 2 cannot let passengers spend a whole morning, it will have an impact,” he said.

“And I’m really sorry that this happened and we’re making sure now, looking forward, that this impact doesn’t carry over into tomorrow.”

Mr Woodroofe said an investigation into what happened would take place.

“Huge queues”

Many English football fans were hoping to start their journey on Sunday in Cologne, where their team will meet Slovenia on Tuesday in the Euro 2024 tournament.

Bobbi Hadgraft said BBC Radio Manchester she feared missing her flight when arriving at the airport at 4 a.m. due to “huge queues.”

The power outage affected the airport and several surrounding buildings on Sunday morning.

“Power has been restored and we are working to get passengers already at the airport onto flights as quickly as possible,” the airport added.

Passengers arriving from Terminal 3 are advised to proceed to the airport as usual, although their flights may be subject to delays.

Passengers have complained on social media about long queues at Manchester Airport check-in counters, with images and videos showing people waiting in dimly lit terminals.

The power outage came at the start of the busy summer season for UK airports.

Manchester is the UK’s third largest airport, welcoming around 27 million passengers a year to 200 destinations.

Recent years have been difficult for the UK traveling public, as the air and rail sectors have been periodically hit by a series of technical problems and strikes.

A problem with electronic immigration gates caused long delays for thousands of passengers last month, and last summer a technical problem with air traffic control caused widespread disruption.

Updated: June 23, 2024, 9:46 p.m.