Manchester Airport flights to 'run as usual' on Monday after mass cancellations following power cut

24 June 2024, 08:01

Flights to and from Manchester Airport are set to run as normal from Monday, after mass disruption caused by a power cut on Sunday.

By lunchtime on Sunday, 66 outbound flights (25% of all departures) and 50 inbound journeys (18% of all arrivals) were axed. The airport had said no flights were departing from terminals one and two.

But airport bosses said in a statement on Sunday that they were not anticipating any "further disruption" for Monday.

The statement continued: "Airlines will be in touch with passengers to rearrange cancelled flights as we work with airlines, their baggage handling agents and other partners to make sure passengers whose bags did not make it onto their flights are reunited with their belongings as soon as possible.

A statement said: "We would like to apologise to all those affected by the disruption in Terminals 1 and 2 today.

"Tomorrow's schedule is expected to run as usual with no further disruption so passengers should plan to travel to the airport as normal, checking in two hours ahead of their flight for short-haul, and three hours for long-haul.

"It is always advisable to check the status of your flight before you travel to the airport."

"We thank passengers for their patience today and we would also like to thank all of our staff, airlines and onsite partners for their hard work and resilience."

Now, the airport has announced they are "in the process of resuming operations" and "expect flights to restart during the remainder of this afternoon and evening."

They added that "It remains important that passengers check with their airlines before travelling" and that flights departing tomorrow "should be unaffected".

It follows Chris Woodroofe, the airport’s managing director, delivering an apology from outside the terminal: “My sincere, personal apologies to every single passenger who has been impacted by what has gone on at Manchester Airport today.”

He said there had been a “big power spike” which had knocked out the airport’s electrical system and led to a backup of aircrafts at the terminal with "no space to park" for inbound aircraft.

In a social media post on Sunday, the airport said no flights would be departing from terminals one and two "until further notice" following the outage, which hit systems in the early hours of the morning.

It advised passengers due to travel from those terminals not to go to the airport and to contact their airlines for up-to-date information.

Those due to fly from terminal three were told to go to the airport as normal, unless advised otherwise by their airline, after some earlier departures were delayed.

There have been instances where some people's baggage was not on flights.

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As part of his statement, Mr Woodroofe added the surge had "damaged some really key equipment for our departures security and our departures baggage systems.

“That has meant both Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 haven’t been able to depart aircraft today and as a result we haven’t been able to have aircraft arrive as arrivals as there is no space to park those aircraft on the airfield.”

He continued: “The good news is we very much expect this to be recovered over the afternoon and evening so we are back to normal operations tomorrow.”

Airline easyJet, which operates flights from terminal one, said there were "very long queues" for security and disruption to hold baggage processing, meaning passengers could board flights only with cabin luggage.

It said: "Although outside of our control, we would like to apologise for any inconvenience experienced as a result.

"We are doing all we can and working closely with the airport team to minimise the disruption."

Meanwhile, a number of arriving flights were being diverted to other airports.

One Singapore Airlines flight arriving from Houston in Texas had to go to London Heathrow while another, which came in from Singapore, was forced to land at London Gatwick.

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

The airport said: "We apologise for any inconvenience and aim to restore normal service as soon as possible."

A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson said: "Following a site-wide power outage at Manchester Airport, baggage systems are currently not operational.

"Our teams are working closely with the airport authorities and are keeping our customers up to date with the latest information.

"Virgin Atlantic flights are currently departing but may be subject to minor delays."

Travel expert Simon Calder with the latest on Manchester airport power cut

The airport said it is unable to give a timeframe on when it will be able to get services back up and running at normal speeds.

Inbound flights are less affected by the huge power cut, though there have been some delays at Border Control.

Airlines will organise onward journeys for passengers whose flights are cancelled.

Travel expert Simon Calder told LBC's Henry Riley earlier this morning: "The vast majority of passengers will be using Terminals 1 and 2.

"There are crowds of many thousands of people. They've been there since the early hours."

He added that a "whole swathe of flights" will be cancelled.

"People on their way to the airport will get a message saying 'your flight isn't going'."