UK's Manchester Airport faces flight cancellations after 'major' power cut

Manchester Airport, one of the major airports in the United Kingdom, issued a warning to passengers to stay away from the airport after a "major" power cut disrupted several flights on Sunday.

The outage hit early hours on Sunday morning and resulted in people forming large queues inside the airport, the BBC reported, adding that the airport expects further disruption through the day.

Additionally, some arriving flights were diverted to other airports.

An airport spokesperson warned that passengers coming to the airport could face delays.

The flights of those already at the airport would be prioritised as efforts to "work through that backlog" continued, a spokesperson said.

The disruption comes at the start of the summer holiday season at the UK's third-busiest airport where an airport source said the power cut "literally knocked everything off".

This power cut also affected other businesses, including major logistics firms nearby.

Bobbi Hadgraft, who is travelling to watch England at Euro 2024, said: "We were worried we would miss our flight."

She added that the power outage had affected display boards and scanners so staff had to direct passengers around the site.

Others used social media to complain about long queues for check-in desks and passport control, as well as a lack of communication from staff in the "chaos".

Pictures showed long queues of people, some waiting in near darkness.

The airport said its electricity supply went off at about 1:30am BST but has since been restored, although it would take time to get systems up and running again.