Jack Burgess
Live reporter

Image source, Reuters

We are about to bring our live coverage of today's disruption at Manchester Airport to a close.

Thousands of passengers have faced a frustrating day, with cancellations, delays and big queues after a major power cut affected the UK's largest airport outside London.

No flights were departing from Terminals 1 and 2 on Sunday until operations started to resume later in the afternoon.

The airport's managing director has said the disruption was caused by a fault with a cable in the early hours that affected the airport's electrical network.

He hopes the flight schedule will run as normal on Monday, but urges passengers to check the status of their flights before they travel to the airport.

You can continue reading in our story here.

This page was written by Andre Rhoden-Paul and Lora Jones. It was edited by Jack Burgess and Johanna Chisholm.

Olwyn Hocking, who was a traveller at Manchester Airport today, has described the scenes as "chaos".

Olwyn is a grandmother flying to visit grandchildren in North America.

She tell us she encountered massive queues to get into the terminal, where people leaving said they had waited for three hours to get bags.

Hocking describes an "appalling lack of communication" and queues snaking around corridors at 03:00 BST and 04:00.

"The queues went out into the rain outside, but no member of staff appeared to explain there was an outage," he says.

We've just seen an update from Manchester Airport, which says in a post on social media platform X, external that check-in and departures at Terminal 1 and 2 have now fully resumed following the power outage earlier today.

It urges passengers to check the status of their flights with their airlines before coming to the airport.

The airport says it is not expecting further disruption tomorrow and it is working to reschedule cancelled flights and reunite passengers without their baggage.

You are entitled to the same assistance as for a cancellation if your flight is delayed by more than two hours.

You may also be able to claim compensation if your flight arrives at its destination more than three hours late, external.

The amount is based on how far you are flying.

If you are delayed by more than five hours and no longer want to travel, you can get a full refund.

We've just seen a post on X, external, formerly called Twitter, from the airline Jet2 updating its passengers.

Jet2's message thread by continues by telling flyers to "please proceed to the airport as normal" before adding that "check-in will open in line with scheduled departure time and close 40 minutes prior to departure".

The airline says "if you are currently in resort and have a Jet2holidays transfer booked, this also remains unchanged".

Image source, Balázs Fazekas

01:30 – A major power cut takes place. Power goes off on-site at Manchester Airport due to a “fault” with a cable

07:30 – The airport says it is taking time to get the baggage and security systems up and running again. There is widespread disruption

08:45 – Flights travelling from Terminals 1 and 2 are cancelled. Passengers are advised not to come to the airport until further notice. A number of arriving flights are diverted to other airports

11:30 – Passengers on social media describe the scene as “chaos” and a “shambles” as queues remain and some are held on the runway for hours

12:15 – All flights from Terminals 1 and 2 are cancelled until further notice. Manchester Airport tells passengers due to travel from those terminals not to come to the airport. Flights are still departing from Terminal 3

13:30 – Manchester Airport boss Chris Woodroofe apologises and says that he expects the situation to be resolved over the afternoon and evening

15:15 - Operations in Terminals 1 and 2 start to resume, with flights expected to take off throughout the afternoon and evening

17:00 – The airport’s managing director tells reporters some 20% of flights have been cancelled so far. He says the airport is hoping to run a full schedule on Monday and will compensate passengers appropriately for the disruption

Image source, Getty Images

If you are stuck abroad or at the airport because of a flight cancellation, airlines must also provide you with other assistance until you are able to fly to your destination.

This includes:

• a reasonable amount of food and drink (often in the form of vouchers)
• a way for you to communicate (often by refunding the cost of calls)
• free accommodation, if you have to stay overnight to fly the next day
• transport to and from the accommodation

If your airline is unable to arrange assistance, you have the right to organise this yourself and claim back the cost later.

In this case, the Civil Aviation Authority advises people to keep receipts and not spend more than necessary.

Vinnie Smith - a passenger travelling through Manchester Airport earlier today - has been telling us about his experience when he arrived from Tenerife at about 01:00 BST.

He says he was "met by complete darkness" at passport control.

Vinnie adds there was no mobile phone signal for people to contact their transfer contacts.

"It was ultimately a complete disaster and communication was awfully poor - especially to those on the outside waiting for people," the 21-year-old from Leeds says.

He adds that passengers were sent to Terminal 1 by buses eventually and describes "hundreds of people shoulder to shoulder" at baggage collection.

Image source, Getty Images

If your flight is covered by UK law, your airline must let you choose between either getting a refund or being booked on to an alternative flight, regardless of how far in advance the cancellation was made.

You can get your money back for any part of the ticket you have not used.

So if you booked a return flight and the outbound leg is cancelled, you can get the full cost of the return ticket refunded.

If you still want to travel, your airline must find you an alternative flight.

If another airline is flying to your destination significantly sooner, or there are other suitable modes of transport available, then you have a right to be booked onto that alternative transport instead.

Image source, UGC

If you're just joining us now, or are in need of a quick recap, here's a flavour of what travellers in Manchester have been experiencing today:

• There have been significant delays, cancellations and big queues at Manchester Airport throughout the day due to a major power cut earlier this morning
• The airport's managing director has said there was a "fault" with a cable on-site, which sent a surge of power across the network and impacted baggage processing and security systems
• No flights were departing from Terminal 1 and 2 as a result, and earlier today the airport had advised passengers not to go there

• Manchester Airport now expects flights to be restarting throughout the rest of this afternoon and evening, and says passengers due to travel tomorrow "should plan to come to the airport as normal"
• EasyJet had seen the biggest number of cancellations, while Jet2 cancelled all of its remaining flights from the airport on Sunday, and Tui pushed a number back to Monday
• Some customers whose flights departed are still dealing with the knock-on effects, after arriving on their holidays with no luggage

If you're affected by the disruption, remember to check out what your rights are when it comes to refunds, being reimbursed for food or accommodation.

A bit more now from Manchester Airport's managing director Chris Woodroofe.

When he spoke to the media a short while ago he said 20% of the day's flights had been cancelled and 40% had departed.

Talking about the other 40% of flights due to depart, he says: "I think it's inevitable that some of those flights won't take off, which is why it's so important that our passengers talk to our airlines.

He says into tomorrow the airport is "very much hoping" to run an "entirely scheduled operation".

When asked by a reporter about passengers unable to get information and feeling abandoned, the managing director says his teams have communicated as best as they can.

He again stressed the need for passengers to check with their airlines about the status of the flights before travelling to the airport.

Woodroofe added that passengers who paid for car parking, lounge passes and fast-track boarding tickets should approach the airport about compensation.

"We will recognise what has gone on today as being a very difficult situation and our compensation approach will be appropriate," he says.

Image source, Katie McGovern

Katie McGovern and her family from Manchester returned home from a holiday in Fuerteventura today when they were caught up in the disruption at Manchester Airport.

She has told the BBC: "It was awful. We got off our plane, and walked to passport control where the queue was ridiculous."

After an hour's wait, Katie says that airport staff said anyone with children under 10 could go to Terminal 1 to retrieve their luggage,

But, Katie adds: "When we got there, Jet2 kept telling us mixed information".

She says that Terminal 2 was "rammed" while her daughter fell asleep on the floor "with people running around her".

After several more hours, they finally received their suitcases and her daughter's pram.

She sums the experience up as being "horrendous" and says she arrived home at 08:30 after landing at 01:25 on Sunday.

We've just been hearing from Manchester Airport's managing director Chris Woodroofe.

Speaking to a reporter, he describes it as a "very difficult day" and apologises to passengers affected by the flight disruption.

He explains that at 01:30 BST today there was a "fault" with a cable on the airport's site, which sent a surge of power across the electrical network and affected the baggage screening and security systems.

As a result, he says flights were unable to depart Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 until this afternoon.

Woodroofe says the airport will investigate what caused the fault next week.

When asked about passenger accounts of the airport in darkness, he maintains rather that the lights had gone dim and adds it was a "safe environment".

He continues by saying: "We were due to have 90,000 passengers fly in and out of this airport today, and when Terminal 1 and 2 can't depart passengers for an entire morning there is going to be an impact.

"And I'm really sorry that happened and we're now making sure as we look forward, that impact doesn't carry on into tomorrow."

Lora Jones
Business reporter, BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

We've just had an update from the low-cost carrier EasyJet, which was unable to operate flights to and from Manchester Airport this morning.

In a statement, it said: "Operations are progressively resuming and bag drop reopened at 15:00 UK time ready for customers with flights departing after 16:30."

But given the knock-on effect of the disruption, it's still expecting some delays and asks customers to check the status of their flights online.

For passengers currently at the airport, they should carry on following instructions from ground crew.

"While these circumstances are outside of our control, we are sorry for any inconvenience caused by this and we would like to reassure you that we are doing everything possible to minimise the impact of the disruption," it adds.

Image source, PA Media

The frustrations felt by travellers in Manchester today might look all too familiar for people whose plans were affected by the air traffic chaos over last year's August bank holiday.

More than 700,000 passengers were affected by an air traffic meltdown that had knock-on effects for days.

An independent interim report into what went wrong, which was commissioned by the Civil Aviation Authority, found the problem started when the air traffic provider Nats' system struggled to cope with an unusual flight plan and shut down.

A backup system also shut down, leaving manual processing of flight plans as the only option.

It left processing flight plans manually as the only option for hours and passengers were stranded on a busy bank holiday, with airports, restaurants, hotels and alternative flights quickly becoming full.

Nats says that it has made "improvements" since last summer, and it's worth remembering that the disruption we are seeing today is not down to the same reasons.

Manchester Airport has explained that a power failure earlier this morning affected important systems, leading to the delays and cancellations.

Anna Harron, 41, tells us she and her three young children, aged six and under, were travelling from Cyprus to Manchester on a Tui flight when they became stuck on the airport runway for two-and-a-half hours.

When Anna, from Edinburgh, finally got off the plane and boarded on to a bus, she was greeted at Terminal 1 by "rows and rows of bags" and she says the screens were not working.

"It was really badly organised," she adds.

Anna says she felt sorry for the crew because they were "getting abuse".

Rob Corp
Live reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Manchester Airport is mostly owned by Greater Manchester's local councils - with Manchester City council holding a 35.5% share in the company.

The other local authorities in the region hold 29% and the Australian investment firm IFM investors has a 35.5% stake.

Manchester Airports Group (MAG) was formed in 2001 as the operator looked to expand its operations outside the North West. It has since taken over East Midlands and London Stansted airports.

Civil Aviation Authority data for 2023 shows Manchester Airport handled 28.1 million passengers that year, making it the UK's third-busiest after Heathrow and Gatwick - and just ahead of Stansted.

It is the busiest British airport outside London and the South East.

Simon Browning
Business correspondent at Manchester Airport

Image source, Reuters

There are too many planes on the ground here at Manchester Airport.

An airport is a finely tuned and complex operation, and it relies on planes leaving and arriving on time.

Some flights arriving have been diverted to nearby airports, including East Midlands. It is expected that other airports will need to receive Manchester-bound flights too.

This now means that tour operators and airports are in crisis mode as their teams decide what to do for the best of passengers and their crews.

Teams across the industry are frantically trying to work out how to resolve the rest of today’s schedules and how to make sure they are in a position to run tomorrow's operations successfully.

Many passengers, planes and crews are now totally out of place, which means major logistics planning will be necessary.

Aviation is a huge jigsaw puzzle on the ground and in the sky.

If a few pieces move to the wrong place, it can threaten the whole picture.

Nikita Pearson has been describing the scenes at Manchester Airport to us and says "it was mayhem".

The 27-year-old from Lancashire is trying to get to Istanbul for a holiday.

He says when he arrived at Terminal 1 at 08:30 BST he struggled to enter the terminal.

"Absolutely no communication whatsoever. We had to look online to even find out about the powercut," he says.

"Staff were stopping people entering the check-in area, but you couldn't get up to the staff to ask what was happening."

Nikita describes "far too many people cramped in a tiny corridor" and is now trying to rebook a flight for later this evening.