Manchester Airport was left in chaos after a power cut led to the cancellation of a quarter of all flights, delays and lengthy queues.
The country’s third-busiest airport was plunged into darkness on Sunday morning after a “power spike” at 1.30am shut down passport and baggage systems.
Chris Woodroofe, the airport’s managing director, delivered a personal apology to holidaymakers after more than 100 flights were cancelled.
He said: “My sincere, personal apologies to every single passenger who has been impacted by what has gone on at Manchester Airport today.
“It damaged some really key equipment for our departures security and our departures baggage systems.
“That has meant both Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 haven’t been able to depart aircraft today and as a result we haven’t been able to have aircraft arrive as there is no space to park those aircraft on the airfield.”
He said that there had been a “fault” with a cable on the airport’s site, which sent a surge of power across the electrical network.
The airport said it had back-up generators that had restored power relatively quickly following the brief power cut.
However, the cut affected the security systems that communicate with UK Border Force, as well as the baggage systems, both of which are not designed to be turned off and take time to get back up and running.
Mr Woodroofe said the airport would investigate what had caused the fault.
Travel experts said the knock-on effect of the power cut would be felt for the next two or three days and that the airport would face a “multi-million”-pound compensation claim from airlines.
As of 1pm on Sunday, Cirium, the aviation analytics company, said 66 departures had been cancelled, 25 per cent of all outgoing flights.
The company said a further 50 inbound flights had been cancelled, 18 per cent of all arriving aircraft.
Virgin Atlantic, Jet2 and TUI were all affected by the disruption but easyJet saw the highest number of cancellations.
EasyJet, which operates flights from Terminal 1, said there had been “very long queues” for security and disruption to hold-baggage processing, meaning passengers could board flights only with cabin luggage.
At the height of the chaos, the airport said that it had had to get passengers who were already there on to flights, despite the baggage system still being down.
A spokesman said: “The disruption caused by the outage means in some instances baggage may not be on those flights.
“We will work with airlines to make sure passengers are reunited with any baggage that is not on their flight as soon as possible.”
Paul Charles, the chief executive of the PC Agency travel consultancy, said: “They will need to get to the bottom of what caused this outage and look at what the back-up systems are.
“Their back-up system does not appear to be of sufficient quality. The fact they had to tell people not to come to the airport is a major issue because they do not have a fail-safe back-up system in place.”
Mr Charles said the airport would likely face a “multi-million”-pound compensation bill that it would have to pay out to the airlines.
He said that in his opinion the airlines would probably offer passengers refunds or credit for another flight.
EasyJet, TUI and Jet2 all confirmed that passengers could claim refunds or request flight changes but that they would not be entitled to compensation as it was an “extraordinary cause of disruption”.
Compensation is not payable in “extraordinary” circ*mstances, such as unforeseeable emergencies including security issues, natural disasters, extreme weather, air traffic control restrictions and strikes by airport staff.
Paul Spencer, 67, and Jane, 66, his wife, from Wakefield, had been due to fly to Kefalonia with Jet2 at 4am but the flight was later cancelled.
Paul, a retired sales manager, said: “We got here at 1.30am and managed to get through baggage check-in and security but it was chaos.
Mr Spencer said that when they arrived at the boarding gate, they had spoked to the captain of the aircraft.
“He didn’t know about the chaos inside the airport and was wondering why the baggage hadn’t been loaded on to the plane.
“Eventually, we got on to the plane, but we were sat there for 45 minutes before we were told the flight was being cancelled.”
The couple were among the lucky few able to rearrange a flight to the Greek island for Monday morning from Leeds Bradford Airport.
Louise and Christine Hill, who are sisters-in-law, had been due to travel to Dalaman, in Turkey, at 11.20am with SunExpress.
Louise, 52, who works for Royal Mail, said: “At first, we heard the flight was definitely going, but then we might have to catch an easyJet flight or go from Birmingham.
“But we were eventually told that we couldn’t get any flight at all.”
Mr Woodroofe said it had been a “very difficult situation” and shortly after 3pm on Sunday, an airport spokesman said it had been in the “process of resuming operations”.
They added: “We expect flights to restart during the remainder of this afternoon and evening.
“We are also working closely with airlines to reschedule cancelled flights in the coming days. Flights scheduled for tomorrow should be unaffected and passengers due to travel should plan to come to the airport as usual.”
