Manchester Airport cancellations and delays - Travel expert Simon Calder's warning amid power cut 'chaos'

There were chaotic scenes on Sunday morning due to the outage - which primarily impacted Terminals 1 and 2. Flights were delayed and cancelled with passengers urged not to come to the terminals shortly before 9am. 

The power is back on and some flights have taken off but Simon Calder believes it could be a while before things are back to normal after a nightmare morning for the airport and those travelling from, or returning to, Manchester. 

He told LBC: “The airport has effectively instructed the airlines to cancel a whole swath of flights for several hours this morning which will mean that people who are on their way to the airport will almost certainly get a message telling them their flight isn’t going in a bid to recover the operation later today. 

“On top of the tens of thousands of people who will be affected by hundreds of cancellations you’ve got an equal and opposite number of people who are waiting to fly back who are also going to be stranded. 

“All of this is happening at a time when aviation is just getting into the peak season, there’s very heavy bookings on flights and if you knock out a whole load of those then I’m afraid it’s going to get very messy and you could find people waiting several days to get to where they need to be.”

What has Manchester Airport said? 

Their latest statement at 8.45am read: “Manchester Airport was affected by a major power cut in the area earlier this morning. This has caused widespread disruption and flights from Terminals 1 and 2 are being cancelled. Airlines will be in contact with passengers.

“Passengers due to travel from Terminals 1 or 2 today are advised not to come to the airport until further notice and to contact their airlines. Passengers due to fly from Terminal 3 should come to the airport as normal unless advised otherwise by their airline but could be affected by delays. 

“We are working to get passengers already at the airport onto their flights. 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.

“A number of arriving flights are being diverted to other airports so anyone due to pick passengers up from the airport is advised to check before they travel. We apologise for any inconvenience and aim to restore normal service as soon as possible.”

Which Manchester Airport flights are delayed or cancelled? 

The full list of flights that are cancelled or delayed can be found in our story which we’re updating throughout Sunday.