Manchester airport flights resume and to ‘run as usual’ after major power outage
James ChappleThe boss of Manchester airport has apologised after a power failure plunged the airport’s schedule into disarray on Sunday (23 June).
Chief executive Chris Woodroofe said the fault – first identified during the early hours of Sunday morning – had been traced to an underground cable, which caused a power surge, although he stressed a full investigation would take place.
Woodruffe added staff at the airport were working hard to minimise the impact of the outage on people’s travel plans over the coming days.
MAN said all flights scheduled for Monday (24 June) "were expected to run as usual", although passengers have been advised to check with their airline.
"Further disruption is not anticipated tomorrow [Monday] so passengers expecting to travel should plan to come to the airport as usual, in line with the advice from their airline," said MAN.
The outage primarily impacted terminals 1 and 2 at the airport, with operations continuing out of Terminal 3.
According to the BBC, more than 90,000 people were affected by the incident, which impacted security and baggage screening at the airport.
Outbound flights were initially grounded, with arrivals diverted to other UK airports. By lunchtime, around a quarter of departures – 66 – had been cancelled along with 50 inbound flights.
Manchester said it would work with airlines as they reschedule flights, as well as baggage handling agents and other partners to reunite passengers who departed without their baggage with their belongings as soon as possible.
The airport added: "We thank passengers for their patients and our resilience team and customer service colleagues for their hard work."
Jet2.com and Jet2holidays said all Jet2.com flights due to operate to and from Manchester on Monday would do so as planned.
It confirmed that due to the outage, some flights departed with reduced or no luggage after the power failure rendered the baggage system at the airport "inoperable".
"Although the situation was beyond our control, we will do everything we can to get all luggage to its final destinations as soon as we possibly can."
It rescheduled three flights to Monday 24 June – services to Lesvos (LS1753), Kefalonia (LS1019) and Zante (LS1797), along with their respective inbound legs.
EasyJet said: "Following the overnight power outage at Manchester airport, we are now able to operate flights as planned. We advise all customers due to fly with us from Manchester to check the status of their flights."
Tui said it was still experiencing "severe disruption" to its planned departures, while stressing it had not yet cancelled any flights.
It confirmed six services that had been due to operate on Sunday would now fly on Monday – TOM2708 to Kefalonia, TOM2750 to Faro, TOM2770 to Dubrovnik, TOM2774 to Paphos (formerly TOM2730), TOM2774 to Larnaca and TOM2776 to Tenerife.
Like Jet2, it apologised to customers who departed Manchester on Sunday without baggage. "Our team are doing everything they can to reunite passengers with their baggage."
‘Big power spike’
In a video posted to X (formerly Twitter), Woodroofe said he wished to offer affected passengers his "sincere, personal apologies".
He said "a big power spike" damaged "some really key equipment" for it security and baggage systems meaning aircraft had been unable to depart Terminal 1 or Terminal 2.
He added a lack of space to park aircraft on the airfield was the reason for the volume of inbound diversions.
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