With the summer holidays looming, Manchester Airport’s busy summer season was off to a bumpy start following a major power cut over the weekend. Although the airport is now back up and running following a major power cut in the area on Saturday 22 June, some 90,000 passengers were affected with 140 flights cancelled and airport operations disrupted.
Chris Woodroofe, the airport’s Managing Director, said a fault with a cable had caused a power surge that took down security systems and baggage screening, with both Terminal 1 and 2 affected. While power was resumed on Sunday 23 June and check-in and departures fully restarted, services were still affected throughout Sunday with a quarter of all flights from the airport had to be cancelled with some inbound flights being diverted to other air transport hubs. Woodroofe also confirmed there would an investigation into what happened.
Passengers arriving at the airport on Sunday reported long queues at check-in and passport control, with some having to wait in near darkness. Although power was restored on Sunday, some airlines were still only allowing passengers to board with cabin bags because of ongoing problems with the airport’s baggage handling system.
A statement from the airport said that “the disruption caused by the outage means in some instances baggage may not be on their flights”. Airlines are seeking to reunite passengers with bags as soon as possible.
While Manchester Airport said it expected to run as usual on Monday 24 June, there were still disruptions to operations with larger than normal volumes of passenger traffic as travellers awaited alternative departures after Sunday’s wave of cancellations.
Commenting on the incident at Manchester, ground transport and accommodation solutions provider CMAC Group’s CEO, Peter Slater told Regional Gateway: “The recent power outage at Manchester Airport has highlighted the critical importance of having robust ground transportation and accommodation solutions in place.”
CMAC provided critical support during Manchester’s power outage, arranging 398 accommodation rooms, supporting a total of 704 guests and supplying 278 vehicles which facilitated the transportation of 3,001 passengers.
Slater added: “We were able to swiftly mobilise our resources to support thousands of stranded passengers, ensuring they had access to necessary accommodations and transportation.”
Referencing CMAC’s recent study analysing the travel preferences of 1,100 passengers who had completed round-trip flights for business or leisure within the last year, he concluded: “The study further emphasises that passengers value integrated travel solutions, and it’s clear that airlines need to consider the entire travel journey, not just the flight to provide a comprehensive and satisfactory experience.”
