Passengers are stuck on grounded flights for FOUR hours as plane breaks down at Manchester airport as others face baggage delays
- A Cathay Pacific flight suffered a malfunction on landing on Thursday afternoon
- Customers on other planes for takeoff eventually had their flights cancelled
- Passengers complained of fresh delays at the airport on Friday morning
- Pictures show long queues for baggage drop off amid freezing temperatures
Passengers were stranded on planes for up to four hours yesterday at Manchester airport as baggage delays this morning leave holidaymakers stuck in long queues, with some dubbing the airport ‘rubbish’.
Customers on board Cathay Pacific, TUI and Brussels flights were sat on the tarmac for hours before their flights were cancelled and they disembarked.
The delay is believed to have been caused by a Cathay Pacific plane which suffered a malfunction while landing, supposedly due to a landing gear fault, reports on social media suggest. The airport has not confirmed the cause of the malfunction.
It came as passengers complained of further delays this morning due to long queues to deposit baggage before their flights.
Passengers are facing fresh delays at Manchester airport on Friday morning with long queues to drop off baggage
Customers have labelled the airport ‘chaos’ and ‘rubbish’ on social media
On Thursday the Cathay Pacific blocked a Brussels airlines flight to Brussels and a TUI flight to Cape Verde, which were stuck on the tarmac for up to four hours, Manchester Evening News reports.
A spokesperson for Manchester Airport said: ‘We are aware of a technical fault affecting a Cathay Pacific aircraft this afternoon, which has also resulted in two other departing aircraft being unable to access the runway, causing the cancellation of these flights.
‘We regret the inconvenience this has caused to affected passengers and are working closely with the airlines involved to provide assistance to passengers and support with onward travel arrangements.”
The faulty aircraft was removed from the taxiway by yesterday evening, but passengers are facing fresh travel woes this morning inside the airport
The Cathay Pacific flight became stuck on the taxiway after a fault during landing
As the big Christmas getaway begins, customers have taken to social media to complain of long delays to baggage drop-off
Frustrated passengers said just a few of the available lanes were operating at the airport on Friday morning
As the big Christmas getaway begins, customers have taken to social media to complain of long delays to baggage drop-off, as well as waiting for several hours on the taxiway for planes to be de-iced.
The airport is facing another day of freezing temperatures as the mercury remained at -3C by 10am on Friday.
Long queues were pictured at the airport at baggage desks on Friday morning as frustrated passengers said just a few of the available lanes were operating.
One customer wrote on Twitter: ‘What an utter mess @manairport T2 is. Brand new but obviously managed by the same morons as before as the organisation is horrific.
‘Staff confused as to why they can’t open lanes and stood doing nothing instead.’
Other passengers complained of being stuck in queues for long periods of time with very young children, claiming they have had ‘no support’.
Another added: ‘Stuck at @manairport for 2 hours now. Should have departed at 7.15am and almost 9.15am and still no sign of takeoff.
‘Was waiting for the plane to be defrosted which was done an hour ago but now waiting for take off assistance.’
While others described the airport as a ‘mess’, in ‘chaos’, and the ‘worst airport I’ve ever flown from’, one Twitter user named Andrew simply said: ‘Manchester airport is rubbish.’
Manchester Airport has been contacted for comment.
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