LIVE: Cancelled flights and delays at Manchester Airport due to refueling problems

'Absolute pandemonium'

Passenger Catherine says she has been told to get a coach to Liverpool - but it’s up to an hour wait to board one.

She says the situation is ‘ridiculous’ and says passengers are not being given enough information.

'Any chance of some info?'

Passengers due to travel tomorrow are now asking if their flights will go ahead as planned. As yet, there is no formal update about how long this situation will last.

Passengers are saying there's 'no information about what's going on'

86 flights have now been cancelled

A spokeswoman at Manchester Airport has just confirmed that 86 flights have been cancelled.

That’s 44 cancelled departures and 42 cancelled arrivals.

Up to 13,000 passengers have been affected.

Engineers remain on site trying to fix the problem and there is, as yet, no end in sight.

They are believed to be investigating whether a power outage earlier in the day affected the airport’s fuel delivery system.

What we know so far

Travel chaos hit thousands of passengers when a hitch halted all plane re-fuelling at Manchester Airport today.

The problem first emerged at around 2pm on Sunday as passengers went onto social media to report they were stuck on stationary aircraft at all three terminals.

Some waited for three hours on board until they learned their flight was being cancelled.

They were disembarked and many of them were being put in hotels around the airport, hopeful of another departure in the morning.

Unconfirmed reports suggested it was a problem with the electricity supply which powers the fuel delivery system at the airport.

Dozens of flights were cancelled or delayed.

Only aircraft with enough fuel to make it to get to their destination could leave. Pictures and video emerged on social media of hundreds of passengers waiting in the terminal buildings.

Later the airport confirmed that 48 flights had been cancelled, arrivals as well as departures. Passengers reported being stuck on aircraft at airports around Europe, awaiting a return to Manchester. Police were seen stationed in the terminal buildings in case tempers frayed.

A Manchester Airport spokesman said: “Due to a power issue this afternoon there is currently an issue with the fuel supply at the airport. Engineers are currently on site to fix the issue and we are working with airlines to try and minimise the impact.”

The police are on hand in T3

This is another picture from Owen Hesford

Video shows chaos at Terminal 3

Terminal 3 looks packed

This is the scene in Terminal 3

Passenger Owen Hesford has sent us this picture

Stuck for more than three hours

People taking all sorts of routes

48 flights cancelled

A spokeswoman for Manchester Airport has said 48 flights have been cancelled because of the re-fuelling problem.

These are departing and arriving flights.

It means thousands of passengers have had their flights cancelled while many more have experienced delays.

'Shambles'

Jet2 responds to passenger's frustration

'I've been stuck on a stationary plane for three hours'

Rachael Smith, 36, from Edinburgh, had been due to fly with easyJet to Preveza in Greece on business but her flight has just been cancelled.

Speaking from the aircraft, she told the M.E.N: “I’ve been sitting her close on three hours now, which funnily enough was the flight time. We’ve just been told the flight has been cancelled. We’re waiting to be taken off but there’s a backlog. So it will be a hotel and hopefully a flight tomorrow.

“The crew have brought us water. It’s not their fault at the end of the day. It would have been nice to know (what the problem was) a little bit sooner.”

After half-an-hour of waiting, Rachael said the captain informed passengers ‘we’ve got no fuel’ but it took another two hours of sitting on the stationary aircraft to be told of the ‘system failure’ affecting refuelling.

“I think everyone is a bit bored and a bit angry,” said Rachael

Passengers are feeling very frustrated

In-bound flights around Europe have been affected

One of the planes hit by the refuelling problem

Rachel Smith has sent us this picture of a plane which has been hit by the refuelling problems.

'The only word to describe it is chaotic'

A lot of flights are affected, but not all of them

A Manchester Airport spokeswoman was unable to say how many flights were affected. She was hoping to confirm numbers later.

But any aircraft that doesn’t have enough fuel to get to its destination won’t be able to depart yet.

The M.EN. has learned about one scheduled departure to Tenerife which didn’t have enough fuel for that destination but was instead used for a flight to Majorca. The aircraft had enough fuel for the shorter journey.

The airport has this to say about the problem

A Manchester Airport spokesman, said: “Due to a power issue this afternoon there is currently an issue with the fuel supply at the airport. Engineers are currently on site to fix the issue and we are working with airlines to try and minimise the impact.”

This is how it looks inside Manchester Airport tonight

Martin Keogh has sent us this picture from Manchester Airport where hundreds of people are understood to be affected by problems with the aircraft fuelling system.

Flybe confirm there is a problem with 'unanticipated fueling issues' at Manchester Airport

Replying to one fed-up passenger a spokesman for Flybe said on twitter:

“I am sorry for this disruption. I can confirm that there has some issues due to unanticipated fueling issues at Manchester Airport, this has had a knock on effect to a few flights. “