Manchester Airport chaos highlights Britain’s crumbling infrastructure

Manchester Airport says the outage lasted just a few minutes, yet that was all it took for every vital component to malfunction with catastrophic consequences from the processing of boarding cards to baggage screening.

More than 60 departures – equivalent to a quarter of all flights taking off from the airport – were cancelled, along with 50 inbound flights. Scores of others were rerouted.

Mr Woodroofe has likened the loss of its power supply to “ripping the plug out of your computer without shutting it down properly”. But why did it happen? Was there back-up power? And if so, was it not working properly? 

Even after power was restored the baggage system remained inoperable leaving hundreds of suitcases piled in front of check-in desks.

An afternoon of inexcusable calamity, was capped by a blackout that plunged the airport into darkness.

Once again, questions about the reliability of a creaking and outdated grid are unavoidable, particularly with demand poised to rocket.

Is it fit for a world in which electric vehicles, artificial intelligence and renewables are set to proliferate, or is it likely to be quickly overwhelmed?

Greg Jackson, the Octopus Energy founder, has said the National Grid is “not fit for purpose”.