Manchester Airport chaos highlights Britain’s crumbling infrastructure

There are too many outdated and unreliable facilities with no improvement plans.

Elected officials either blame others too quickly – or refuses to admit that there is a problem, even after being presented with facts.

Many senior businessmen choose to hide behind a ludicrously high-paid army of spinners who will deflect, obstruct and divert at every opportunity.

There was something refreshing about Chris Woodroofe’s decision to take the heat over the weekend when chaos quickly descended upon Britain’s third largest airport after a major outage.

Woodroofe, who stood outside the main terminal and offered his “sincere apology to every single affected passenger by what happened”, was a shining example of leadership. Many public figures could learn a lot from him.

It is likely that his words have calmed the anger of the hundreds of holidaymakers who were left stranded. This is the best thing one can hope for in such a situation.

They won’t dampen the concerns of British citizens about the crumbling of Britain.

The majority of power cuts occur in developing countries that are either unable to pay their bills, or have not invested enough in basic infrastructure. This is because corrupt ruling elites spent the tax money on Rolls-Royces and marble palaces.

The incident at Manchester Airport may have been nothing more than a one-off, electrical problem that was quickly fixed and is unlikely to happen again anytime soon.

It is a testament to the poor state of the critical infrastructure in this country that it will be questioned whether the collapse at Manchester is indicative of a larger malaise sweeping across the UK.

There is no plan to upgrade the basic physical structures and facilities that support civilised societies.

Manchester Airport’s rapid descent into chaos reminds us of the fragility of our transportation system.

This is alarming.

There are too many roads that are either in a state of shocking dereliction . Rail is still a joke.

Commuters have been held hostage by union barons who are politically driven for years, enduring constant cancellations and delays. Travelling on overcrowded trains has become the norm, rather than the rule.

Many airports used to be first-class, but now they lack the staff or capacity to meet demand and rely on outdated technologies and systems.

Heathrow has been begging for a third runway since decades. Yet, it seems that the airport is still not close to the kind of expansion which would allow it to compete with its more tenacious overseas competitors.

The infrastructure gap in Britain is particularly acute in the North. Rishi Sunak’s decision to cancel HS2’s Manchester leg has not helped the situation.

Manchester Airport’s long-term growth projections were lowered from 60 million passengers per year to 50 millions by 2040.

The power grid is also in the spotlight after Sunday’s travel problems in the North West.

The power that airports consume and the amount of people who pass through them are comparable to small cities.

Today, operations must be bulletproof and not vulnerable to supply failures.

Manchester Airport claims that the outage only lasted a few moments, but it was enough for all the vital components to malfunction and have catastrophic consequences. This included everything from baggage screening to the processing of boarding passes.

In addition to 50 outbound flights, more than 60 departures were also cancelled. This is equivalent to one quarter of all flights departing from the airport. Many other flights were rerouted.

Mr Woodroofe compared the loss of the power supply with “ripping out the plug from your computer without properly shutting it down”. Why did it happen, though? Was there backup power? If so, did it work properly?

The baggage system was still inoperative even after the power was restored, leaving hundreds of suitcases in front of the check-in desks.

A blackout plunged the airport in darkness, capping an afternoon of unforgivable tragedy.

The reliability of an old grid is in question, especially with demand set to soar.

Does it have the capacity to cope with a world where electric vehicles, artificial intelligent and renewables will be a common occurrence?

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

Holidaymakers who are dissatisfied are entitled to question whether they are the latest victims of the popular financial model that has been adopted by so many British assets, where absentee investors put their own interests above the needs of customers.

If Thames Water were owned by a more benign entity, it is unlikely that they would be subject to nationalisation .

Manchester Airport is owned jointly by Greater Manchester’s ten councils and the Australian investment fund IFM Investors. Stansted Airport and East Midlands are also owned by the group.

Since before Covid, the consortium has not paid a dividend.

Before the pandemic, which grounded all air travel, the payments were generous. Several council leaders have mentioned that they rely on these payouts.

In 2019, the shareholders will share a windfall of £110m . In 2015, it was £93m.

Could money have been spent better to make Manchester more resilient?

A new government will have a lot to do, but the top priority is to reboot our overloaded infrastructure.