Manchester Airport flights expected to ‘run as usual’ after power cut forced flights to be cancelled

Thousands of travellers are still feeling the affect of a major power cut at Manchester Airport as bosses say flights are expected to "run as usual".

The outage, which hit systems in the early hours of Sunday, 24 June, meant that by lunchtime, 66 outbound flights (25% of all departures) and 50 inbound journeys (18% of all arrivals) were axed, according to aviation analytics company Cirium.

The airport had said no flights were departing from terminals one and two, leading to huge queues and disruption to baggage processing throughout the day.

In an update posted to social media on Sunday night, Manchester Airport said it is not anticipating any “further disruption” for Monday.

But, passengers were still facing disruption, among them were people awaiting alternative departures after the wave of cancellations, and those whose flights went ahead but their checked-in luggage was not put on to the plane.

Airline Jet2.com said it “may take some time” for all baggage to reach passengers.

In a message to passengers, Jet2.com said: “Some flights departed with reduced or no luggage as we were unable to load bags on to our aircraft, as the baggage system at the airport was inoperable during the outage.

“Please be advised that our UK-based ground operations team will work hard to ensure that we get your baggage to you, as soon as we can, as you can appreciate this may take some time and we will endeavour to be in contact with you by the end of the day on Monday.

“We understand how frustrating this situation must be and although the situation was beyond our control we will do everything we can to get all luggage to its final destination as soon as we possibly can.”

Manchester Airport said in a statement it “would like to apologise to all those affected” by Sunday’s incident, and Monday’s flight operations are “expected to run as usual”.

The statement continued: “Airlines will be in touch with passengers to rearrange cancelled flights as we work with airlines, their baggage handling agents and other partners to make sure passengers whose bags did not make it onto their flights are reunited with their belongings as soon as possible.

“We thank passengers for their patience today and we would also like to thank all of our staff, airlines and onsite partners for their hard work and resilience.”

Managing director Chris Woodroofe apologised for the disruption caused to passengers

Earlier on Sunday, managing director Chris Woodroofe said a “fault with a cable had caused a power surge that took down security systems and baggage screening”.

Mr Woodroofe said: “When Terminal 1 and 2 can’t depart passengers for an entire morning there is going to be an impact.

“And I’m really sorry that happened and we’re now making sure as we look forward, that impact doesn’t carry on into [Monday].”

He said an investigation into what happened is set to take place.

The disruption also meant a number of arriving flights were diverted to other airports.

One Singapore Airlines flight arriving from Houston in Texas had to go to London Heathrow while another, which came in from Singapore, was forced to land at London Gatwick.

An Etihad Airways flight from Abu Dhabi Zayed International Airport was diverted to Birmingham Airport.

Among those caught up in the disruption was Samuel Martin, 27, a student at the University of Sheffield, and his friend Matthew O’Brien, 27, an operations manager, whose flight to Manchester Airport from New Zealand via Singapore was diverted to Heathrow.

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