A POWER outage in Spain and Portugal has coincided with plane strikes in Belgium to cause hundreds of delays and cancellations to flights, resulting in misery for holidaymakers.
Red Eléctrica, Spain's national grid operator, experienced an system failure across the entire peninsula yesterday, which led to the grounding of hundreds of flights.
The power outage included blackouts across several cities including Madrid, Seville, Malaga and Barcelona, as well as Lisbon and the Algarve and select areas in the south of France.
Strikes in Belgium have also grounded over 200 flights today.
The Spanish airport operator, Aena, confirmed that Madrid's Barajas Airport was hit the hardest with flight cancellations and delays.
On its website it stated: "Due to the power outage, some incidents are occurring at the airports. Contingency generators are active.
"Please check with your airline, as there may be disruptions to access and ground transportation."
Air traffic was also reportedly operating at "half capacity" yesterday across Spain as a result of the outage.
From Spanish airports, 205 departing flights were cancelled and 208 arrivals were cancelled.
The airports worst affected in the country were Seville and Almeria, where 33.33 per cent and 18.18 per cent of flights were cancelled respectively.
In total, 11 one-way flights from the UK to Spain were cancelled.
Passengers reported being trapped inside of planes that had been unable to fully land, with jetways being blocked according to Madrid Total.
While Barcelona remained operational, it did see some delays with baggage claim and long waits for passengers, where some even chose to leave their suitcases behind.
It has also affected a huge number of train lines, with some going down entirely.
The Valencia metro has suspended its entire service.
One person commented on social media: "The entire Metro network (including the electricity) and traffic lights in central Madrid just went down.
"They made us leave... and the mobile network performance is also very poor."
A spokesperson for the metro line said on social media: "At this time, the service on the Madrid commuter network is out of service due to a power outage."
Roads were also busy as the Spanish Directorate-General for Traffic urged people to avoid driving until there was a resolution.
Brit Caron told The Sun: "We were in the middle of a Spanish cookery class in Seville when the whole market was suddenly plunged into darkness.
"The traffic in Seville is pretty gridlocked as all traffic lights are out.
"We are currently sitting on our hotel terrace listening to lots of angry beeping - we just hope the power comes back before nightfall or things could start to get a bit tricky."
PortAventura World amusement park has also evacuated some of their rides although remains open.
Tennis was also cancelled at the Madrid Open.
And some hospitals have been forced to cancel surgeries for the rest of the day.
Local Lauren told The Sun that the outage had also caused huge queues at cash machines, with most shops unable to take card, while mobile services were also down so people were unable to message or use the internet.
Red Eléctrica said that "the causes are being analysed and all resources are being dedicated to resolving it".
According to 185 flights departing Portuguese airports were cancelled and 187 arrivals cancelled.
The worst affected airports were Lisbon and Porto, where 44.78 per cent and 16.03 per cent of departures were cancelled, respectively.
In total, 25 flights one-way from the UK to Portugal were cancelled.
Lisbon Airport in Portugal also reported operational outages at check in desks.
Dozens of people were also left trapped in the tunnels of the Lisbon Metro because of the outage.
Yesterday, The Sun's Head of Travel Lisa Minot advised: "Under EU rail regulations, if the delay or cancellation means you will arrive in your final destination more than an hour delayed you have the right to choose between:
The Sun's Head of Travel Lisa Minot weighs in.
THE massive power outage across Spain and Portugal threw the transport networks into chaos.
After Madrid’s international airport closed yesterday, there has been a knock-on effect on flights with delays still occurring.
While there is no compensation due to consumers for delays or cancellations as the chaos is outside of any airline’s control, they do have a duty of care.
If your flight has been delayed by more than two hours, your airline should be providing you with food and drink - sometimes in the form of vouchers - as well as access to phone calls or emails.
If you are delayed overnight, accommodation and transport to and from the airport should also be provided.
With a sudden incident such as this, it may be necessary to pay for essentials but make sure you keep all receipts and keep any purchases reasonable.
If your flight is cancelled, your airline has to get you to your destination as quickly as possible - and by any means necessary, even if that means on a different airline’s flight.
However, practically in situations where thousands are impacted, it may be that you have to make your own arrangements - again, make sure your expenses are reasonable and will get you to your destination within a reasonable amount of time. Keep ALL receipts.
You are also entitled to a full refund but remember, if you choose this option, you are on your own and the airline is not responsible for getting you home.
If your travel insurance policy includes travel disruption cover then it may be possible to claim for disruption or losses incurred as a result of your trip being delayed or cancelled.
However, it’s worth noting that not all policies cover this as standard, and cover levels, conditions and exclusions can vary between providers, making it important to check with your insurer as your first port of call.
Hundreds of flights at Brussels Airport and Brussels Charleroi Airport have been cancelled due to strike action today.
Industrial action by workers at Brussels Airport and Brussels Charleroi Airport has forced airlines to cancel hundreds of flights from the Belgian capital’s key air travel hubs on Tuesday 29 April.
According to 105 flights departing or arriving at Brussels Airport - Belgium’s largest airport - have been cancelled.
A further 113 due to depart from or arrive at Brussels Charleroi have been cancelled.
Charleroi Airport often connects travellers with Manchester and Edinburgh airports but today said that it would cancel all departing flights today due to there not being enough staff "to run operations in complete safety”, according to a statement on its website.
Anton Radchenko, CEO of AirAdvisor, said: “On 10 February, Brussels Airport was forced to ground all departures scheduled on the day due to strikes.
I actually can't believe how many hours this is going on for
Lauren, Lisbon local
"Another round of industrial action took place on 31 March, cancelling hundreds of flights set to depart the country.
"Early indications suggest that this latest round of industrial action is having a similar effect on Belgium’s travel infrastructure and it doesn’t look like the issue is going to be resolved any time soon."
Anton explained that if you were due to have a flight to or from Belgium today, to firstly reach out to your airline and seek a replacement flight.
He added: "If you have decided that you want to cancel your trip, you are entitled to a refund equivalent to the value of the price of your ticket.
"It’s very likely that today’s events will have a domino-effect on flights tomorrow and potentially the day after too, as both airports may not be able to double daily capacity to accommodate postponed flights from today.
"If you’re due to travel later in the week, you may wish to re-book for a few more days’ ahead when the situation should have resolved itself."
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