Power failure halts flights from two Manchester Airport terminals

All flights out of the two main terminals at Manchester Airport have been cancelled after a “significant power cut” caused widespread disruption.

Passengers travelling via Terminals 1 and 2 have been told to stay away after the outage hit in the early hours, affecting baggage and security systems.

Airport managing director Chris Woodroofe said, although power had been restored, there would be no departures at all from the two terminals for the rest of the day.

More than 100 flights were due to depart from the UK’s largest airport outside London and large queues have formed with many inbound flights diverted.

Mr Woodroofe said a “big power spike” in the airport electrical systems led to a failure which damaged “really key equipment”.

Efforts to recover from the failure were under way, with the airport expected to be “back to normal operations tomorrow”, he said.

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

The airport told the BBC inbound flights had been diverted because “planes can’t take off” due to limited space.

This made it harder to accept aircraft, which would be sent elsewhere, a spokesman said.

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

The airport’s back-up power came on when the primary system went down, but the situation was complicated by mains power cutting out multiple times.

Airlines have said problems with baggage processing meant customers could only board with a cabin bag.

In a statement, Jet2 said handlers had been unable to load bags on to planes due to the outage.

Meanwhile an Easyjet spokesman said passengers could only board their flight with a cabin bag because of problems with the baggage system.

Passengers flying via Terminal 3 should come to the airport as normal, but could face delays, the airport said.

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

An airport source said the power cut “literally knocked everything off”.

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

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

Olwyn Hocking said one member of staff looked like they were trying to hide as “hundreds and hundreds of people poured into the airport, with not a clue there was problem”.

She said it was “chaos”.

Balázs Fazekas, who was due to fly to Montenegro for a week-long holiday with his wife and eight-month-old baby, arrived at 02:00 BST and, after eight hours standing in queues, found out the flight had been cancelled.

“There are bigger issues in life than this,” he said, but added the lack of communication from the airport had been “quite frustrating”.

Another passenger, Phillip Banfield, said his plane had taken off while he was stuck after going through passport control.

He said he was surrounded by an “enormous number of passengers, stranded, wondering how they’re going to continue onwards journeys”.

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

Many passengers have been trying to find out about their rights if a flight is cancelled or delayed.

See here for answers to the following questions:

• If my flight is cancelled, can I get a refund or another flight?
• Will the airline pay for food and accommodation?
• What compensation can I get if my flight is delayed?
• What are my rights if I have booked a package holiday?
• Can I claim extra compensation for other types of disruption?
• What if flight delays mean I am late back to work after my trip?

Social media has been filled with complaints about long queues for check-in desks and passport control, as well as a lack of communication from staff in the “chaos”.

Pictures and video footage showed long queues of people, some waiting in near darkness. 

The airport said its electricity supply went off at about 01:30 but has since been restored, although it would take time to get systems up and running again.

Additional reporting by Aleks Phillips & Mary Litchfield