‘Significant number of flights’ at Manchester Airport disrupted due to power cut

By Alex Stambaugh and Rosa Rahimi, CNN

(CNN) — Manchester Airport, one of the UK’s busiest airports, has been hit by a power cut, causing delays and disruption for its passengers.

A “significant number of flights” operating from the airport in northern England have been impacted by a “major” power cut in the area, the airport said in a statement on Sunday.

“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,” the airport said.

Footage posted to social media showed long lines building up at the airport’s terminals, with passengers expressing their frustration at the delays and lack of information provided.

“Thousands of people were stood around outside just being told to queue for baggage, with the only announcements being the same, ‘Thank you for your patience,’” said Eva Horsefield, a passenger who was waiting at the airport. “1000s of people were sat on the cold floor for 6+ hours,” she added.

Katie McGovern said the situation was “awful.” She arrived in Manchester from Fuerteventura with her four-year-old daughter at 1:25am local time. They waited in long lines for passport control and were told to go to a different terminal – a 40 minute walk – to retrieve their luggage.

“No pram offered, no water, no chair to help get her there. When we did, it was rammed, people running about, nearly taking out my daughter,” she told CNN.

“My daughter fell asleep on the floor with people running around her – it was horrendous,” she said. Eventually, they arrived home at 8:30am.

The airport has since said “power has been restored,” but reiterated that a “number of flights are likely to be cancelled.”

The airport has advised passengers due to fly from Terminals 1 and 2 “not to come to the airport until further notice and to contact their airlines.” According to the airport’s website, 46 flights departing from Manchester today have been cancelled.

Those traveling from Terminal 3 should proceed to the airport as usual, it said. However, the updated statement noted that they “could be affected by delays.”

The airport also noted that it is working to get passengers already at the airport on their flights, but that the “disruption caused by the outage means in some instances baggage may not be on those flights.”

The airport’s managing director, Chris Woodroofe, issued a video apology and promised that ‘normal operations’ would resume by tomorrow.

“My sincere apologies, personal apologies, to every single passenger who has been impacted by what’s going on at Manchester Airport today,” said Woodroofe, who explained that the disturbance was caused by a “big power spike” in the airport’s electrical system.

Sam Martin and his friend were meant to arrive in Manchester after a 38-hour journey from New Zealand via Singapore. As they started their descent over Manchester, their plane was turned around and landed at London Heathrow this morning.

“This journey was meant to bring us home,” said Martin, speaking to CNN from the plane on the tarmac.

After more than two hours of waiting, a manager from Heathrow came aboard and announced that Manchester would not be accepting any flights. A little after 1pm local time, nearly four hours after they arrived, passengers were allowed to disembark the plane and have since been told they will be put on a coach to Manchester.

Richard Bromley was waiting for his brother to arrive on a KLM flight from Sydney, via Amsterdam when he found out the flight had been cancelled.

His brother has now been put on a flight for tomorrow, scheduled to land at Humberside Airport – over 100 miles away from Manchester, and with more than 24 hours delay.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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