UK’s Manchester Airport faces cancellations after power cut

MANCHESTER: Flights departing the UK’s Manchester Airport faced cancellations and severe delays on Sunday after a power cut in the area caused widespread disruption, an airport spokesperson said.

Passengers queue outside Terminal 1 after an overnight power cut led to disruptions and cancellations at Manchester Airport in Manchester, Britain, June 23, 2024. – Reuters.

A significant number of flights, particularly from Terminals 1 and 2 were expected to be delayed or cancelled, the spokesperson said.

The disruption was first reported by Sky News, which said an issue with the power supply affected the airport and a number of other buildings. Power has been restored but the impact will affect services throughout the day, the report added.

The Manchester Airports Group, which also operates London Stansted and the East Midlands airports, said Manchester Airport had been “affected by a major power cut in the area earlier this morning.” Power has now been restored at the international airport in the north of England, but passengers due to travel from Terminals One and Two were told to “not come to the airport” as all flights were cancelled “until further notice”.

Passengers for Terminal Three were told to come to the airport as normal, but were warned they “could be affected by delays”.

The airport operator said that while passengers already checked in were scheduled to depart as planned, the disruption meant “some baggage may not be on those flights”. “We will work with airlines and handling partners to reunite affected passengers with their luggage as soon as possible”, the group added.

The airline Jet2 - which operates from both terminals - said that as well as cancelling dozens of flights, it was unable to load bags onto planes as the airport’s baggage system remained “inoperable”.

Airline easyJet, which operates flights from Terminal One, warned of “very long queues” for security, and said passengers could only board flights with cabin bags. In addition, some arriving flights were being diverted to other airports according to the airport statement, including London Heathrow and Birmingham. Some flyers took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to describe the “chaos”, with one passenger saying they had been waiting for their bags after landing after midnight and another saying they were “stuck on the plane”.

The UK’s travel industry has been hit by a series of disruptions in the last few years, including technical problems and industrial action affecting rail and air passengers. Last month, a nationwide outage of immigration e-gates caused long delays for thousands of passengers.

In August last year, the country faced its worst air traffic control disruption in almost ten years due to a technical fault. Meanwhile, a Boeing 777 aircraft BA.N operated by Dutch airline KLM AIRF.PA returned to Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on Sunday after reporting an unspecified technical problem, national air traffic control said.

Flight KLM705 destined for Rio de Janeiro in Brazil turned around over Belgium after requesting to land as a precaution, a spokesperson for Dutch air traffic control said. It was unclear precisely what was wrong. KLM said the safety of passengers and crew were never at risk and that an alternative aircraft would be used for the flight. The aircraft was shown on FlightRadar 24 has having returned to Schiphol Airport. – Agencies.