All flights out of terminals one and two at Manchester airport have been cancelled after a “significant power cut” in the early hours of Sunday morning, leaving hundreds of holidaymakers stranded.
The airport told all passengers due to travel from its two biggest terminals on Sunday not to come to the airport, and warned passengers on the few flights that were able to leave that they may not have their luggage with them.
More than 60 departures, about a quarter of all flights taking off from the airport on Sunday, were cancelled, along with 50 inbound flights.
“Manchester airport was affected by a significant power cut in the early hours of this morning,” it said in a statement. “Power has been restored but the outage affected important systems, including the processing of boarding cards and baggage screening, which has caused significant delays.”
At the airport on Sunday afternoon, hundreds of suitcases could be seen piled in front of check-in desks as the baggage system remained inoperable, while many passengers queued for hours in the hope of getting on flights still scheduled on departure boards.
Tensions were running high in the terminal buildings, punctuated by the sounds of announcements asking people on cancelled flights to leave the airport and to call their airline from home. Virgin Atlantic, Jet2 and easyJet flights were among those affected.
Rick and Sue Newby, from Macclesfield, should have been on an easyJet flight to Lanzarote at 7am, but after arriving at the airport at 5am, checking in their luggage and heading to the gate, they found it had been cancelled.
They managed to secure a booking on a Jet2 flight to the same destination in the afternoon, departing from terminal two, and were waiting outside the building to check in again – only for an email to come through just before 1pm saying that had also been cancelled.
“We paid nearly £500 extra for new flights to get out there today,” said Sue. “And they let me book that at 11.30am this morning.
“Oh my God, I can’t believe it. We have been here since 5am.”
Videos posted on social media showed the airport plunged into darkness and baggage carousels brought to a standstill when the power cut hit in the early hours. Many holidaymakers expressed frustration at how the outage was causing so much disruption, hours after power had been restored.
“All the airport is open, all the shops are open, all the lights are on, hot food is being made and served – it’s like, what power cut? What is this power outage?” said Rick. “We just don’t understand what is going on.”
Many passengers said they made their way to the airport, the third busiest in the UK, on Sunday morning after being reassured their flight was running, only to find out just after midday that all flights from terminals one and two had been cancelled.
Paula and Meredydd Williams were scouring the internet for more flights to Nice in France after their 12.55pm departure was cancelled. They heard the news about the power outage only after travelling from their home in Eryri (Snowdonia) to the airport.
“If we’d known sooner, we could have stayed at home,” said Paula. “My daughter texted me to say she had heard it on the news. We’ve had hardly any information. We were just told we could still board if we only had hand luggage, so we went all the way through security, only for it to be cancelled.”
The couple run their own holiday cottage business and had to arrange cover to get time off for their five-night trip. They were struggling to find any flights that would get them on holiday before Tuesday.
Emma Jones, from Wrexham, said she had been on hold to Jet2 for an hour and 15 minutes trying to rebook her holiday after her 4pm flight to Greece was cancelled.
“It’s nobody’s fault, is it? But I rang Jet2 before we left the house this morning, and they said to come as normal,” she said. “We were just told to leave extra time to get through security. It has been very stressful.”
Passengers also reported being told they would not be able to take hold luggage on their flight if it went ahead. Sharon Hudson, waiting for a flight to Egypt, said: “How are we supposed to go on holiday for two weeks with just hand luggage?
“If they put us on a later flight with our luggage I would be fine with that. But if you go without it, it could be a week before it turns up, if ever.”
Chris Woodroofe, Manchester airport’s managing director, said he expected the problems to be solved and normal operations to resume on Monday, as he offered his “sincere personal apologies” to everyone affected.
“There was a power spike in our electrical system due to a failure early on this morning and that has damaged some really key equipment for departure security and our departure baggage systems,” he said.
“That has meant that terminal one and terminal two haven’t been able to depart aircraft today, and as result we haven’t had aircraft able to land as arrivals as there is no space to park those aircraft on the airfield.”
Some flights were still arriving at the airport, but many were diverted elsewhere. The airport said terminal three, which covers domestic flights, was not severely affected but could also be subject to delays.
The travel expert Simon Calder said the systems at Manchester airport were in “extreme disarray” as a result of the power cut, telling LBC: “All of this is happening at a time when aviation is just getting into the peak season, very heavy bookings on flights, and if you knock out a whole load of those, then it’s going to get very messy, and you could find people waiting several days to get where they need to be.”
