Manchester Airport ‘hopes to operate fully to schedule’ after travel chaos

Flights are departing from Manchester Airport’s two main terminals after a “major power outage” caused travel chaos for passengers.

The airport said in a post on X Sunday afternoon that it was “in the process of resuming operations” and flights scheduled for today “should be unaffected.”

Earlier on Sunday, the facility had announced that all flights from Terminals 1 and 2 had been canceled “until further notice” and passengers were advised not to come to the site.

Travelers scheduled to fly out of Terminal 3 were largely unaffected.

The power outage is understood to have only hit the airport, after it was initially thought to have affected a wider surrounding area.

Passengers already at the airport faced huge delays, with footage showing huge queues of people.

There were cases when some people’s luggage was not on the flights.

Chris Woodroofe, managing director of Manchester Airport, apologized for the chaos, saying “a fault in a cable caused a surge which destroyed the security and baggage control systems”.

He said “about 20% of our flights have been canceled so far”, adding: “Tomorrow (Monday) we very much hope to run a fully scheduled operation.”

Mr Woodroofe said there was to be an inquiry into what happened.

Turkey Lindsay Mitchell hoped she and her family would be able to fly to Turkey later Sunday for a trip that had been planned for a year.

She was to go with her husband, daughter, son, her son’s girlfriend, daughter’s boyfriend, nieces, sister and two nieces.

Ms Mitchell told Sky News: “We were advised this morning not to travel to Manchester airport but we thought we would as our flight doesn’t leave until teatime, fingers crossed.”

She added: “You have to make the best of a bad situation. It’s not the airline’s fault, it’s not Manchester Airport’s fault, it’s nobody’s fault, it’s just one of those weird things that happen in everyday life.” .

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Another passenger, Hayden Lewis, said his flight to the Greek island of Skiathos was canceled after he had been stuck at the airport for about five hours.

He later went to Birmingham Airport after being dropped off by his father and was hoping to reach his holiday destination.

Mr Lewis told Sky News: “Our flight was canceled after we were in the airport for about five hours. We were at a loss as to when they (the airline) could get us there so we took matters into our own hands and are now in Birmingham. The airport goes to the right destination.

“We are going to Skiathos for nine nights. We traveled from Halifax to Manchester. Now we are in Birmingham thanks to my dad who picked us up from Manchester and dropped us off in Birmingham. All because easyJet doesn’t know when they might bring us back. out, but want to keep checking out the app (along with thousands of others).”

A number of arriving flights were forced to divert to other airports.

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

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

(c) Sky News 2024: Manchester Airport ‘hopes to operate fully on schedule’ after travel chaos