Flights at Manchester Airport have resumed following a day of chaos caused by a power cut.
Approximately 90,000 passengers were affected, with flights canceled and scheduled arrivals redirected.
Check-in and departures at Terminal 1 and 2 have now fully resumed, according to an update from the airport.
Officials have stated that further disruption is not anticipated on Monday, and efforts are underway to reschedule canceled flights and reunite passengers with their baggage.
Chris Woodroofe, the airport’s managing director, explained that a “fault with a cable” led to a power surge, resulting in the malfunction of security systems and baggage screening.
Mr Woodroofe said: “When Terminal 1 and 2 can’t depart passengers for an entire morning there is going to be an impact.
“And I’m really sorry that happened and we’re now making sure as we look forward, that impact doesn’t carry on into tomorrow.”
He said an investigation into what happened would take place in the coming week.
‘Mess’
Massive queues formed when a quarter of all flights from the airport had to be canceled.
Passengers scheduled to travel through Terminals 1 and 2 were advised to avoid the airport.
According to aviation analytics company Cirium, by lunchtime, 66 outbound flights and 50 inbound flights were canceled.
The disruption occurred at the onset of the summer holiday season at the UK’s third-busiest airport, prompting apologies to passengers from the airport authorities.
Kelvin Knaver, from St Helens, Merseyside, was set to fly to Amsterdam with EasyJet before his flight got canceled.
He told BBC North West Tonight: “It’s been a mess.
“There’s such a backlog that it’s going to take forever to clear.”
Many affected individuals took to social media to share photographs of long queues at check-in desks and passport control, expressing frustration over the lack of communication from staff.
Images and video footage depicted lengthy lines of people, some waiting in dimly lit areas.
Mr. Woodroofe had previously announced that power had been restored but stated that there would be no departures from the two terminals for the remainder of the day.
Over 100 flights were scheduled to depart from the UK’s largest airport outside London when the issues began, leading to many inbound flights being diverted.
The airport explained to the BBC that inbound flights were redirected because “planes can’t take off” due to limited space, making it challenging to accept incoming aircraft, which were then redirected elsewhere.
Among the affected flights was one arriving from Houston, Texas, which had to land at London Heathrow, while another from Singapore was diverted to London Gatwick.
The airport’s backup power system activated when the primary system failed, but the situation was further complicated by multiple mains power outages.
Airlines reported issues with baggage processing, resulting in customers only being permitted to board with a cabin bag.
Jet2 stated that handlers were unable to load bags onto planes due to the outage, while an EasyJet spokesman noted that passengers could only bring cabin bags on board due to problems with the baggage system.
Passengers traveling via Terminal 3 were also cautioned about potential delays.
‘Chaos’
Bobbi Hadgraft, who is on her way to watch England at Euro 2024, shared with BBC Radio Manchester that she arrived at the airport around 04:00 BST to find “enormous queues” outside Terminal 1.
“We were concerned we might miss our flight,” she said, mentioning that the power outage had disrupted display boards and scanners, forcing staff to guide passengers around the premises.
Olwyn Hocking described witnessing one staff member appearing overwhelmed as “hundreds and hundreds of people streamed into the airport, unaware of the issue.”
She said it was “chaos”.
Balázs Fazekas, who was due to fly to Montenegro for a week-long holiday with his wife and eight-month-old baby, arrived at 02:00 BST and, after eight hours standing in queues, found out the flight had been cancelled.
“There are bigger issues in life than this,” he said, but added the lack of communication from the airport had been “quite frustrating”.
Another passenger, Phillip Banfield, said his plane had taken off while he was stuck after going through passport control.
He said he was surrounded by an “enormous number of passengers, stranded, wondering how they’re going to continue onwards journeys”.
It had been “virtually impossible” to get through check-in and security, which was only feasible if you were just carrying hand luggage, he added.