Manchester Airport says flights are expected to resume later after power outage

Manchester Airport said it expects flights to resume later, following a major power outage which caused huge disruption.

Huge queues formed when a quarter of all flights from the airport had to be canceled due to a power outage.

Airport officials said planes would depart in the afternoon and early evening after flights from Terminals 1 and 2 cease.

Aviation analytics firm Cirium said that as of lunchtime, 66 outbound and 50 inbound flights had been scrapped.

Passengers traveling through Terminals 1 and 2 were asked to stay away after the early morning outage, affecting baggage and security systems.

The disruption comes at the start of the summer holiday season at the UK’s third largest airport, which has apologized to passengers.

The airport said its power supply was cut off around 1:30 a.m. but has since been restored, although it would take time to get the systems back up and running.

Kelvin Knaver, from St Helens, Merseyside, was due to fly to Amsterdam with EasyJet before his flight was cancelled.

“There is such a backlog that it will take forever to catch up.”

Many affected people posted photographs on social media of long queues at check-in counters and passport control, and complained about a lack of communication from staff.

Images and video footage showed long lines of people, some waiting in near darkness.

Airport chief executive Chris Woodroofe said earlier that power had been restored but there would be no departures from either terminal for the rest of the day.

More than 100 flights were due to take off from the UK’s largest airport outside London when the problems began early in the morning, and many incoming flights had to be diverted.

Mr Woodroofe said a “big power spike” in the airport’s electrical systems led to an outage which damaged “really essential equipment”.

He added: “It’s a very difficult situation, I couldn’t be more sorry,” he said.

The airport told the BBC that incoming flights were diverted because “planes could not take off” due to limited space.

That made it more difficult to accept planes that would be sent elsewhere, a spokesperson said.

Among those affected was a flight from Houston in Texas which had to travel to London Heathrow while another, from Singapore, was forced to land at London Gatwick.

The airport’s emergency power was activated when the main system failed, but the situation was complicated by repeated power outages.

Airlines said baggage handling problems meant customers could only board with carry-on baggage.

In a statement, Jet2 said handlers were unable to load the bags onto planes due to the outage.

Separately, an Easyjet spokesperson said passengers could only board their flight with a cabin bag due to problems with the baggage system.

Passengers passing through Terminal 3 have also been warned of delays.

Bobbi Hadgraft, who is traveling to watch England at Euro 2024, told BBC Radio Manchester that she arrived at the airport at around 04:00 BST to see “huge queues” outside Terminal 1.

“We were afraid we would miss our flight,” she said, adding that the power outage affected display boards and scanners, forcing staff to direct passengers around the site.

Olwyn Hocking said one staff member appeared to be trying to hide as “hundreds and hundreds of people poured into the airport, without a clue there was a problem”.

She said it was “chaos.”

Balázs Fazekas, who was due to fly to Montenegro for a week’s holiday with his wife and eight-month-old baby, arrived at 02:00 BST and, after eight hours of queuing, discovered that the flight had been canceled.

“There are bigger problems in life than this,” he said, adding that the lack of communication from the airport was “quite frustrating.”

Another passenger, Phillip Banfield, said his plane took off while it was stuck after going through passport control.

He said he was surrounded by a “huge number of stranded passengers, wondering how they will continue their journey.”

It was “virtually impossible” to get through check-in and security, which was only possible if you were carrying only hand luggage, he added.