Airport ‘stay away’ warning amid major power cut

Passengers have been told to stay away from Manchester Airport after a “major” power cut disrupted a significant number of flights.

The warning for those travelling through Terminals 1 and 2 comes after the outage hit in the early hours, affecting baggage and security systems.

Large queues of people have formed inside the airport, where a number of flights have been cancelled, with further disruption expected through the day and some arriving flights diverted to other airports.

Passengers flying via Terminal 3 should come to the airport as normal, but could face delays, an airport spokesman said.

Flights of those already at the airport would be prioritised as efforts to “work through that backlog” continued, a spokesman said.

It is understood back-up power systems came on when the main system went down, but the situation was complicated by mains power cutting out multiple times.

Airlines have said problems with baggage processing meant customers could only board with a cabin bag.

In a statement, Jet2 said handlers had been unable to load bags on to planes due to the outage.

Meanwhile an Easyjet spokesman said passengers could only board their flight with a cabin bag because of problems with the baggage system.

Manchester cancellations

The disruption comes at the start of the summer holiday season at the UK’s third-busiest airport, which has apologised to passengers.

An airport source said the power cut “literally knocked everything off”.

It also affected other businesses in the surrounding area, including major logistics firms nearby.

Bobbi Hadgraft, who is travelling to watch England at Euro 2024, told BBC Radio Manchester she arrived at the airport at about 04:00 BST to see “enormous queues” outside Terminal 1.

“We were worried we would miss our flight,” she said, adding the power outage had affected display boards and scanners so staff had to direct passengers around the site.

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

Social media has been filled with complaints about long queues for check-in desks and passport control, as well as a lack of communication from staff in the “chaos”.

Pictures and video footage showed long queues of people, some waiting in near darkness.

The airport said its electricity supply went off at about 01:30 but has since been restored, although it would take time to get systems up and running again.