Passengers travelling through Manchester Airport faced delays of more than three hours in some cases today after an IT systems outage. Some departure boards and other information screens were blank while the baggage drop-off area seemed the worst affected.
Passengers reported "painfully slow" waits getting through the check-in hall and flights delayed as people worked their way through the queues. Announcements over speakers replaced on-screen information and staff worked tirelessly to help people get to where they needed to as smoothly as possible.
Terminal 1 was 'rammed' according to those travelling today, with the other two terminals not as badly affected. The problems with the IT systems were first reported to passengers around 6am with restorations taking place just after 1pm, with residual delays remaining for some time.
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The airport said they had 'contingencies' in place while the IT systems were down with staff on hand in the terminals to support travellers. The outage caused delays to the check-in process 'in particular', the airport said, with terminal one becoming very busy due to this.
John Gregory queued for more than three hours for a flight at 1.10pm to Dubai and described the delays at the baggage drop off as 'painful' with the terminal itself 'absolutely rammed'. He explained that bags all had to go through particular one point, where skis and other large objects would usually go through, making everything very slow.
He said: "We've been waiting three hours at the check-in, we've now been pulled out as they're calling flights through that are soon. All bags are having to go through one bag inspection as the rest aren't working. It's painfully slow.
"There are lots of staff on the ground trying to get things through but it's absolutely rammed here now. It's completely backed up."
John later told the Manchester Evening News that the flight was delayed for more than two hours, with many at risk of missing connecting flights because of this.
Passengers who had earlier flights told the MEN that despite not experiencing long delays to get through the check-in area as people did later in the morning, the IT outage did lead to their flights being delayed by at least an hour.
The last update given by the airport thanked passengers for their patience and understanding, and confirmed no flights had been cancelled due to the IT failure, but some may have experienced delays. Manchester Airport were approached for more details surrounding the outage.
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