A power cut early on Sunday (23 June) caused more than 60 departures to be cancelled at Terminals 1 and 2. Around 50 inbound flights were also cancelled and the failure of baggage systems meant passengers waited hours for their luggage.
One agent has called for an inquiry into the outage, while others recounted to TTG how they sprang into action on Sunday to assist their clients and, in some cases, save their holidays.
Jet2holidays and Tui were hit badly as Sunday morning departures were delayed, while some that did depart were unable to load luggage. Jet2 said flight operations were now back to normal, as has Manchester airport, whose chief executive Chris Woodroofe has apologised.
On Tuesday (25 June), a spokesperson told TTG: “We are in the process of returning bags to customers as some flights departed with reduced or no luggage on Sunday, as we were unable to load bags onto our aircraft due to the baggage system at the airport being inoperable during the outage.
“We have dispatched a team from our UK headquarters to help our existing team in Manchester and the majority of bags were flown out yesterday. The team continue to work tirelessly to make sure that everyone is reunited with their baggage as soon as possible.”
The operator said it hoped to have contacted all affected passengers by the end of Monday (24 June).
Tui said it had not cancelled any flights, but did move three departures to Faro, Paphos and Larnaca from Sunday to Monday evening.
Tui added: “We would also like to apologise to those customers who departed Manchester airport without any bags or had to leave the airport on arrival without their luggage.
"Our team are doing everything they can to reunite passengers with their baggage and already flying bags to their intended destination.”
Manchester airport said on Monday evening it had been “operating smoothly”, adding: “The airport is slightly busier than usual as airlines get passengers impacted by the disruption onto new flights.
"This is likely to be the case over the coming days. We have extra staff in place to help our passengers. Passengers whose bags did not make it onto flights yesterday are advised to stay in contact with their airlines.
"We are working with airlines, their ground handling agents and other partners to get those bags out to passengers as soon as possible. Many were placed on flights last night and today and have already been reunited with their owners.”
