As Brits are all packed and ready to jet off on their holidays today (23 June), passengers have been told ‘not to come’ to a major airport as cancellations and severe delays hit flights.
In absolute travel ‘chaos’, Manchester Airport suffered a ‘major power cut’ in the early hours of this morning.
And while the power has now been restored, disruption is still expected at the UK’s third-busiest airport, with all flights out of the two main terminals cancelled.
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It issued a new updated at 12:15pm which explained that while the power was back up and running, the outage had affected important systems ‘including the processing of boarding cards and baggage screening’.
So, with this absolute nightmare for Brits planning on going on holiday, the airport has had to cancel a long list of flights.
“All flights from Terminals 1 and 2 are being cancelled until further notice and passengers due to travel from those terminals are advised not to come to the airport and to stay in touch with their airlines,” it advised.
For those passengers who were supposed to be arriving at Manchester today, some of them have had their flights ‘diverted to other airports’.
As people on X call the place a ‘genuine shambles of a gaff’, those flying from Terminal 3 haven’t totally escaped the chaos either.
While Manchester Airport advises those due to fly from Terminal 3 to ‘come to the airport as normal unless advised otherwise by their airline’ it warns that they still could be affected by delays.
“Flights for those passengers already checked-in are departing but are subject to delays. The disruption means some baggage may not be on those flights,” it said.
“We will work with airlines and handling partners to reunite affected passengers with their luggage as soon as possible.”
While X users called it all a ‘big oops’, the airport apologised for the ‘inconvenience’ and says it is ‘working hard to restore normal service as soon as possible’.
"We thank passengers for their patience and our resilience team and customer service colleagues for their hard work."
easyJet, which operates flights from Terminal 1, warned of 'very long queues' for security and disruption to hold baggage processing, meaning passengers could board flights only with cabin luggage.
It said: “Although outside of our control, we would like to apologise for any inconvenience experienced as a result.
“We are doing all we can and working closely with the airport team to minimise the disruption.”
A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson also said: “Following a site-wide power outage at Manchester Airport, baggage systems are currently not operational.
“Our teams are working closely with the airport authorities and are keeping our customers up to date with the latest information.
“Virgin Atlantic flights are currently departing but may be subject to minor delays.”
Jess Battison