Passengers hit by travel chaos at Britain’s third-largest airport today faced anxious waits for their bags after a power cut forced the cancellation of more than 100 flights.
An outage at Manchester Airport in the early hours of yesterday morning disrupted baggage handling and left thousands of passengers flying without luggage.
Planes have taken off without checked bags, tourists have reached their destinations with only their hand luggage and are now waiting for their other luggage to catch up.
Some people were desperate to get basic medicines abroad today, while many needed a change of clothes or even clothes for the wedding.
According to aviation analytics company Cirium, a total of 66 outbound flights (25 percent of all departures) and 50 inbound flights (18 percent) were canceled yesterday.
Airport bosses insisted flights should “run as normal” today after more than 90,000 people were affected when a two-hour outage caused huge queues.
Click here to resize this module
However, there were still significant delays to flights this morning, including a 6.05am Tui flight to Burgas, Bulgaria due to take off at 9.40am – and a Jet2 flight to Kos, Greece delayed from 6.05am to 7.40am.
The 6:35 Tui flight to Funchal was delayed until 8:30, while the 7:00 Tui flight to Ibiza was rescheduled to the same time.
Flight tracking website FlightRadar24 said at around 7.30am today that the average departure delay in Manchester was 21 minutes, with 65 per cent of departures delayed.
Among the passengers without luggage today was Ben Crowe, who wrote on Twitter: “We flew from Manchester to Crete yesterday but all luggage was left in Manchester.
“We need to know when these cases will arrive in Crete, we have things for the wedding and some medicine for the cases that are necessary.
Click here to resize this module
Another, Jo Slater, said: “Absolutely a joke. I am here in Ibiza on the last flight from Jet2 but our luggage was sitting at Manchester airport. Very annoying. In my case, I have medication. No help, no communication, someone is responsible.”
And a third tweeted: “How do we find out where our luggage is and when it will arrive at the hotel?
“We’re stuck without a change of clothes, personal items, or medicine… so obviously we can’t even begin to enjoy our vacation.”
Thousands of fed-up holidaymakers spent hours in check-in or security queues yesterday, or were left stranded by arriving planes on the tarmac.
The power outage, which lasted just a few minutes at 1:30 a.m., knocked out security systems, including those that control baggage handling, boarding pass control and passport control.
Click here to resize this module
As a result, staff could not process people or their luggage at the airport for hours.
Images showed thousands of people sneaking through doors and suitcases piled high at check-in counters that could not be loaded onto planes.
In a desperate bid to remove the “bottleneck”, airport bosses canceled dozens of flights from Terminals 1 and 2 and appealed to those due to depart to stay home.
Many more departures were delayed or took off without luggage on board, while dozens of flights to the airport – around a fifth of all arrivals – were also either canceled or diverted to other airports.
One Singapore Airlines flight arriving from Houston, Texas had to fly to London Heathrow, while the other, arriving from Singapore, was forced to land at London Gatwick.
An Etihad Airways flight from Abu Dhabi Zayed International Airport has been diverted to Birmingham Airport.
Click here to resize this module
Chris Woodroofe, chief executive of Manchester Airport, apologized to furious passengers who complained of “chaotic” conditions and poor communication from staff.
Paul Spencer, 67, and his wife Jane, 66, from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, were due to fly to the Greek island of Kefalonia on Jet2 at 4am.
They arrived just as the blackout happened and managed to get through baggage claim and security and board the plane, but their flight was canceled before departure.
“There was no prioritization and people who flew later blocked those who flew earlier,” Mr Spencer said. “I think we stood in line for about four hours.
“When we got to the gate, we saw the captain of the plane. He was unaware of the chaos inside the airport and wondered why the luggage had not been loaded.
Click here to resize this module
“We eventually got on the plane but sat there for 45 minutes before being told the flight was cancelled.
The couple managed to find alternative flights from Leeds Bradford Airport yesterday.
“We feel we got off lightly as other passengers were not so lucky,” Mr Spencer added.
“Some we spoke to said they were told they would have to get down to Gatwick to catch the morning flight to Zante and then get a ferry to Kefalonia from there.
Friends Lisa Raw, 37, and Daniel Mason, 33, were part of a 16-strong group of friends and family due to travel on the Sun Express to Dalaman, Turkey at 11.20am.
Mrs Raw, an aesthetic doctor from Richmond, North Yorkshire, said: “We got here at 7.30am but didn’t find out it had been canceled until two hours later. So now we had to find new flights from Liverpool costing £1200.
Click here to resize this module
“All we were told was to stand around, we don’t have any updates.” Jennifer and Robin Holt and their two children Molly, 19, and George, 16, were due to fly to Bangkok with Etihad.
Mrs Holt, 45, said: “We were tracking our flight on the flight radar.
“It was just circling Manchester Airport before being diverted to Birmingham. Didn’t bother landing here because of all the chaos.
“We’ve been told to stay in a hotel in Manchester and hopefully fly out early tomorrow morning.
Among those involved in the disruption were Samuel Martin, 27, a student at the University of Sheffield, and his friend Matthew O’Brien, 27, an operations manager, whose flight to Manchester from New Zealand via Singapore was diverted to Heathrow.
Mr Martin, from Chesterfield, Derbyshire, said: “We had someone who drove us and picked us up from Manchester airport who had to turn around and go home.”
Click here to resize this module
About 90,000 passengers were expected to arrive and depart at the airport yesterday.
Mr Woodroofe said the faulty cable sent a surge of energy across the airport grounds, knocking out safety and security systems.
As it happened, further investigations will take place this week.
Videos and photos posted by passengers on social media appeared to show the terminals in darkness.
But Mr Woodroofe insisted the lights had simply been dimmed and it was a “safe environment”.
In its latest update last night, Manchester Airport said it expected no “further disruption” for today.
The statement said: “We would like to apologize to everyone affected by the disruption at Terminals 1 and 2 today (Sunday).
Click here to resize this module
“Tomorrow’s (Monday) flight schedule is expected to run as normal without further disruption, so passengers should plan to travel to the airport as normal and check in two hours before their short-haul flight and three hours for long-haul.”
“It’s always a good idea to check the status of your flight before heading to the airport.”
The statement continued: “Airlines will be in contact with passengers to re-arrange canceled flights as we work with airlines, their baggage handling agents and other partners to ensure that passengers whose luggage did not make it onto their flight are re-connected with your belongings as soon as possible.
“We thank passengers for their patience today and would also like to thank all our staff, airlines and partners on the ground for their hard work and resilience.”