Flights delayed by Melbourne airport power outage

Domestic flights have been affected by a power cut at Melbourne Airport this morning.

Around 10:45am AEST airport staff were still trying to identify the cause.

Terminal One has been without power, affecting all Qantas domestic flights.

Power has been restored to Terminal Three, which had been affecting baggage retrieval.

A JetStar flight was also affected for 30 minutes, while a number of Virgin flights affected by the outage have returned to normal.

No international flights were disrupted.

Melbourne Airport Communications Manager Emma Stenhouse says passengers should contact their airline about a possible backlog of flights, saying many face 45 minute delays.

"Obviously we'd just ask for people's patience, we are returning to operations as normal and we do apologise for delays that people have encountered," she said.

Ms Stenhouse says the outage was caused by construction contractors who severed a high voltage cable.

"Terminal one which is the Qantas domestic terminal, that was the main affected terminal," she said.

"Terminal two, the International terminal, had minimal disruption and terminal three, the baggage handling system, was affected, but that is now back to normal but obviously there are some backlogs."

She says flights are starting to return to normal but delays are expected throughout the afternoon.

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Thu 10th July 2008 - 12:36pm