Forty-eight flights out of Manchester Airport were cancelled on Tuesday morning following a power failure.
The airport lost power at 5.30am, leading to cancellations and delays that hit the holiday plans of 10,000 passengers.
The failure followed the flooding of a main electrical plant room and affected all three terminals. However, air traffic control at the airport and runway lighting were not affected.
Power was restored at 8am and the airport reported Terminals 1 and 2 back to normal by 11am. The smaller Terminal 3 took until early afternoon to resume normal service.
Regional carrier Flybe was worst hit, cancelling 30 services as it chose to ensure aircraft were in the right place once flights resumed,rather than extend delays throughout the day by operating services late.
An airport spokesman said: “The short circuit was highly unusual. It was unfortunate it happened at the busiest time of day at the busiest time of year. Everything was back to normal with zero delays by 2pm.”