A power cut at Manchester airport has caused a “significant number of flights” to be cancelled, with all passengers flying from terminals one and two advised not to travel to the airport on Sunday.
In a statement released on Sunday morning, Manchester airport said “a major power cut in the area earlier this morning” had caused “widespread disruption”, with flights delayed and cancelled, and luggage unable to be loaded on to flights in some cases.
Power was restored by 7.45am, but the airport said flights from terminals one and two were being cancelled. Those passengers were advised not to come to the airport until further notice.
“Passengers due to fly from terminal three should come to the airport as normal unless advised otherwise by their airline, but could be affected by delays,” the airport said.
It also said the outage meant luggage may not be on departing flights, and that it would work with airlines to make sure passengers received their belongings as soon as possible.
Passengers due to arrive at the airport were being diverted to other airports, it said.
Problems with the power supply in the local area is thought to have affected the airport as well as other buildings nearby.
Photographs and videos posted on social media showed huge queues of passengers attempting to check in for flights, and chaos on baggage carousels as disembarked passengers attempted to find their luggage with no information.
Manchester airport, the third busiest in the UK, said it was “working to get those passengers already at the airport on to flights as soon as possible”.
The travel expert Simon Calder said the systems at Manchester airport were in “extreme disarray” as a result of the power cut.
“The vast majority of passengers will be using terminals one and two. There are crowds of many thousands of people there, they’ve been there since the early hours, no flights leaving,” he told LBC.
He said the airport was going to instruct airlines to “cancel a whole swathe of flights for several hours … in a bid to recover the operation later today”.
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“People who are on their way to the airport will almost certainly find they’ll get a message saying their flight isn’t going,” he said.
Calder said there was an equal number of people waiting to fly back to Manchester who were also going to be stranded by the power cut.
“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,” he said.
Live departures from Manchester airport on Sunday morning showed well over a dozen cancelled flights, and many others facing significant delays. The arrivals board was less affected, but also showed cancellations and delays.