Manchester Airport is in ‘utter chaos’ today as a major power cut cancelled dozens of flights and diverted planes with passengers stuck in packed terminals.
Huge queues formed in Terminals 1 and 2 at Britain’s third busiest airport following the ‘two hour’ outage as passengers grumbled about a ‘total lack of announcements’ about their flights.
Hundreds of bags lined up and piled in the terminals may not even been flown out on the same plane as their owners, leaving holidaymakers facing an anxious wait to be reunited with their belongings.
While people expecting to fly in to Manchester could find out they will land miles away elsewhere as a number of flights are being diverted to other airports.
Holidaymakers departing from Terminals 1 and 2 have been told not to travel to the airport ‘until further notice’ and to contact their airlines.
Terminal 3 could also face delays but people should come to the airport as usual unless their airline says otherwise, the airport said.
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One family was near the end of a 13 hour and 45 minute flight from Singapore when its Singapore Airlines plane was diverted to Heathrow.
While three friends who had tickets to see Olivia Rodrigo in Lisbon, Portugal, for her last European show are distraught after their flight was cancelled.
Another couple told they are still sitting at Istanbul airport where their flight to Manchester has been delayed by more than three hours.
One mother, who did not wish to be named, told she has been stuck on the runway at Heathrow for more than an hour after her connecting flight from Singapore was diverted at the last minute.
‘Heathrow staff say they’re struggling to get any kind of information from Manchester airport staff so no idea what’s happening,’ she said.
‘They also said they were only told to divert the flight as they started to descend for landing at Manchester.
‘The plane crew are trying their best but they have no idea what’s going on either. I have some very fed up kids after a long journey from Sydney.’
Luggage has been chucked on ‘any carousel’ at Manchester airport with prams discarded on the floor, one person claimed who has posted footage which showed people standing in near darkness as an alarm sounded.
Several short power cuts happened at around 1.30am and, although the airport’s back-up generators kicked in quickly ‘within a short space of time,’ the cut knocked out the computers operating the site’s security systems, including those at passport control, boarding pass readers and bag processing which take time to re-boot.
This meant that staff were unable to process passengers arriving for early morning flights causing a ‘giant bottleneck’, an airport spokesman said.
Engineers have since fixed the fault but the exact cause is unknown.
‘The airport runs on its own electrical supply so none of the wider area was affected,’ he said.
‘The fault has been fixed and checked so we are confident it won’t happen again but we do not know exactly what caused it.
‘What happened around 1.30am was the power cut, then the back up kicked in, the power was restored, but then went off again, all within a short space of time.
‘It was effectively what happens when you rip the plug out of the back of your computer without shutting it down properly, but on a much bigger scale, and when it is affecting important infrastructure around the safety of aviation the delay in those systems getting back up and running is what caused the problem.’
He said staff were working hard to get those passengers scheduled to take off on early morning flights into the air and out of the airport, but admitted ‘dozens’ of flights in and out of Terminals One and Two today would be cancelled until the backlog was cleared.
So far more than 40 flights have been scrapped but more are expected.
The airport said it is working to get those passengers already at the airport ‘onto flights as soon as possible’, although their bags may not be loaded onto the same plane.
‘We will work with airlines to make sure passengers are reunited with any baggage that is not on their flight as soon as possible,’ the airport said.
Fern, who did not wish us to publish her surname, was stuck at the airport for six hours after her plane from Hurghada in Egypt landed on the tarmac at about 2.50am.
She told she was ‘herded like cattle through long corridors until alas, a dramatic halt to all movement and a one hour and 45 minute wait in corridors with no communication’.
‘Frustrations continued when we were then looped back to the tarmac to board buses to T1,’ she said.
‘It was terribly slow movement on the passport control – several machines going down and again, zero staff- had there been a zombie apocalypse whilst we flew the skies?
‘Relief washed over us when we entered the baggage claim area. This was to be short lived. Now, I’m going to cut a very long story short, but I left baggage claim at 8:45am. A staggering six hours after landing with no communication from any airline staff and only Jet2 reps visible who, whilst very helpful, could only provide so much support to those travelling with other airlines like myself.
‘Absolutely shocking scenes, the trauma is sure to last a lifetime!’
In a statement released at 6.30am today, Manchester Airport said: ‘Manchester Airport was affected by a major power cut in the area earlier this morning.
‘This has caused widespread disruption and a significant number of flights, particularly from Terminals 1 and 2, are expected to be delayed or cancelled… we apologise for any inconvenience and aim to restore normal service as soon as possible.’
The airlines that operate from Terminal 1 include easyJet, Aer Lingus, Emirates, and Etihad Airways.
The likes of Air France, Jet 2, KLM, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, Tui, and Virgin Atlantic fly out of Terminal 2.
Travel expert Simon Calder told LBC the systems at the airport are in ‘extreme disarray’.
‘The vast majority of passengers will be using terminals one and two [and] there are crowds of many thousands of people there, they have been there since the early hours,’ he said.
‘No flights are leaving and the latest information I have is that the airport is going to instruct the airlines to cancel a whole swathe of flights for several hours this morning, which will mean people who are on their way to the airport will suddenly find they will get a message saying your flight isn’t going in a bid to recover the operation later today.
‘On top of the tens of thousands of people who will be affected by hundreds of cancellations you’ve got an equal of opposite number of people waiting to fly back who are also going to be stranded.
‘All of this is happening at a time when aviation is just getting into a peak season.’
He warned the situation could get ‘very messy’ and people could be waiting ‘several days’ to get to where they needed to be.
Shohaib Siddique posted footage of hundreds of people waiting to get inside the terminal as he wrote on x/ Twitter: ‘Chaos at Manchester airport after power outage 2 hours stood outside the terminal with no idea if we are departing today or not.’
Emily Louise said she had been in a queue for nearly three hours. She wrote: ‘My gate has technically closed & passengers who checked in already their suitcases are still in the check-in area? Organised chaos & no Communication!’
A furious Max Wilkinson branded the airport a ‘shambles’ and called on management to quit.
‘Utter disgrace, the airport should have back up systems / generators for this sort of scenario,’ he wrote on X.
‘Expect the unexpected. In general this airport is a shambles and needs major investment. I don’t see how a power cut causes a toilet blockage across T1. Management should resign.’
has contacted Manchester Airport for further comment.
Passengers at nearby Birmingham Airport have also faced travel misery for weeks as they wait in queues for hours amid confusion over the security’s liquid policy.
On Thursday scores of holidaymakers took to social media to share their experience, describing two-hour queues as ‘appalling’ and ‘ridiculous’, while another traveller said the ‘non-express queues are insane’.
Physical changes to the security area, which should allow for new technology required to relax the 100ml rule, mean passengers are now queuing on the ground floor and, at busy times, even outside of the airport.
The Government had announced that the 100ml rule would be scrapped in time for summer, meaning holidaymakers could take larger bottles of liquids in hand luggage for the first time in years.
But this has now been delayed, causing chaos at airports across the UK and confusion for passengers.
New ‘liquid check’ stations have been rolled out at the airport in a bid to cut the time wasted at security by those confused by the changes to hand luggage rules.
Airport bosses have also said they are in the process of hiring a further 100 staff to help combat the lengthy queues faced by travellers.