Flights at Manchester Airport are back on track after a power outage caused significant chaos. This disruption affected up to 90,000 passengers, resulting in flight cancellations and diverted arrivals.
The airport has now confirmed that check-in and departures at Terminals 1 and 2 are fully operational again.
While speaking to UK Local Media, airport managing director Chris Woodroofe explained that a fault with a cable caused a power surge, which subsequently took down the security systems and baggage screening.
"When Terminal 1 and 2 can't depart passengers for an entire morning, there is going to be an impact. I'm really sorry that happened, and we're now making sure that this impact doesn't continue into tomorrow," Woodroofe said.
What caused the power cut at Manchester Airport?
The chaos began when a quarter of all flights from the airport had to be cancelled, resulting in massive queues and frustration among passengers.
By midday, 66 outbound flights and 50 inbound flights were axed, according to aviation analytics company Cirium. The incident comes at the beginning of the summer holiday season, exacerbating the inconvenience for many travelers.
Kelvin Knaver from St Helens, Merseyside, was due to fly to Amsterdam with EasyJet before his flight was cancelled. "It's been a mess. There's such a backlog that it's going to take forever to clear," he told UK Local Media.
Social media was flooded with photos and videos of long queues, some showing passengers waiting in near darkness, and many complained about the lack of communication from airport staff.
What are your rights if your flight is cancelled?
Passengers are entitled to certain rights when their flights are cancelled. These include the right to be rerouted on the next available flight, a full refund, and possibly compensation, depending on the circumstances.
The airport has committed to rescheduling cancelled flights and reuniting passengers with their luggage.
Chris Woodroofe assured that an investigation into the power cut would take place in the coming week to prevent future occurrences.
Although power has been restored, more than 100 flights had been scheduled to depart when the outage occurred, causing inbound flights to be diverted due to limited space.
This included a flight from Houston, Texas, which was redirected to London Heathrow, and another from Singapore, which landed at London Gatwick.
Balázs Fazekas, who was supposed to fly to Montenegro with his family, arrived at the airport at 2:00 BST. After standing in queues for eight hours, he discovered his flight was cancelled.
"There are bigger issues in life than this," he said, but noted the lack of communication was "quite frustrating."
Manchester Airport has apologized for the disruption and is working hard to mitigate the ongoing effects.
The airport assured that further disruption is not expected on Monday, and efforts are focused on getting operations back to normal and assisting passengers affected by the chaos.
