Manchester Airport is operating “as normal” but will be busier than usual, a spokesman said. Thousands were still affected on Monday morning.
From Narbeh Minassian, news reporter, and Tom Parmenter, national correspondent
Monday, June 24, 2024, 11:24 a.m., United Kingdom
Disruptions and long queues continued at Manchester Airport after a major power outage grounded all flights from two terminals.
The airport issued a statement Monday morning saying operations had resumed and urged passengers to “prepare to travel as usual.”
But thousands of people were still affected early Monday, with some waiting for alternative flights and others who had managed to take off finding that their luggage had not been loaded onto the plane.
Some travelers complained about long queues at baggage drop-off and a significant number of flights were still delayed.
Sian Hopwood, from Lancashire, wanted to fly to Kefalonia in Greece, but her flight on Sunday was cancelled. She tried again on Monday.
“Yesterday showed how archaic this airport can be,” Ms Hopwood told Sky News.
“Our flight from Manchester was rebooked for 6am, so we got up at 2:30am and arrived at the airport at 4am this morning only to find out we were hugely delayed… we then rebooked.
“Our daughter is travelling with us but has now gone to Leeds Bradford Airport to get away.
“Sadly, our four day holiday on Kefalonia has now turned into a three day holiday… but the good news is that I am writing this from our plane, so hopefully we can finally take off!”
Passengers were stranded at Manchester Airport
Dozens of flights canceled
The power failure, which hit the systems in the early hours of Sunday morningAccording to aviation analysis firm Cirium, this meant that around 70 departures and 50 arrivals were cancelled.
No flights departed from two of the three terminals for several hours, resulting in huge queues and failures in the baggage system.
In a message to passengers, Jet2.com said some flights were departing with “less or no baggage” because the baggage system was “non-functional” during the outage.
It may take “some time” for the luggage to be returned to its owner, they added.
Due to the disruption, numerous incoming flights had to be diverted to other airports.
A Singapore Airlines flight from Houston, Texas, had to go to Heathrow, while another from Singapore landed at Gatwick.
An Etihad Airways flight from Abu Dhabi Zayed International Airport was diverted to Birmingham Airport.
One passenger, Hayden Lewis, said his flight to the Greek island of Skiathos was cancelled after he spent about five hours at the airport.
He later drove to Birmingham Airport after his father dropped him off there, hoping to reach his destination.
“Thanks to my dad picking us up in Manchester and dropping us off in Birmingham, we are now in Birmingham,” Lewis told Sky News on Sunday.
“All because easyJet doesn’t know when they can get us out again but wants us to keep checking the app [along with the thousands of others].”
Chris Woodroofe, managing director of Manchester Airport, apologised for the chaos and announced an investigation into the incidents.
In a statement, the airport said on Monday that it “will likely be a little busier than usual as passengers were affected by yesterday’s cancellations, but we have extra staff on site and our resilience team is helping out.”