Santa Ana: A Southern California airport has cancelled all flights after a power outage left all its terminals in the dark.

John Wayne Airport in Orange County diverted all arriving flights and cancelled departing flights after the outage hit at around 7.30pm on Friday.

The airport's emergency power kicked in after about a half-hour but flights still remained grounded.

The airport was affected by a Southern California Edison power outage that was centered in nearby Irvine and affected more than 28,000 customers. The outage was caused by a fire in an electrical substation.

The utility estimates power will be restored by Saturday morning.