At least 100 flights were grounded, and 90,000 passengers were stranded on Sunday due to a power outage at the Manchester airport in the United Kingdom.
The airport said in an update that check-in and departures at Terminals 1 and 2 re-started, and officials do not expect further disruption on Monday. But it was unclear how long it would take to clear the backlog of cancelled flights.
An aviation analytics company, Cirium, reported that as of Sunday lunchtime, over 66 outward and 50 inbound flights were interrupted.
The managing director of Manchester Airport, Chris Woodroofe, expressed regret and attributed the disruption to a malfunctioning cable that set off a “surge that took down security systems and baggage screening.”
He clarified that the power outage mostly affected two terminals and promised that the flights planned for Monday would not be impacted.
“When Terminals 1 and 2 can’t depart passengers for an entire morning, there is going to be an impact,” said Mr Woodroofe. “I’m really sorry that happened and we’re now making sure as we look forward, that impact doesn’t carry on into tomorrow.”
Still, images on social media showed thousands of intending travellers looking disoriented in a jam-packed airport.
A number of approaching flights were rerouted to alternate airports, such as an aircraft from Houston, Texas, which had to arrive at London’s Heathrow, and another aircraft from Singapore, which had to land at Gatwick.
