Heathrow Airport – the busiest airport in Europe after handling nearly 84million passengers in 2024 – was closed for hours on Friday after a blaze knocked out an electricity substation
Flights have begun landing at Heathrow Airport this morning – but knock-on disruption is still possible following the chaotic closure on Friday.
More than 200,000 passengers were stranded across Europe due to the fiasco, which happened as a result of a power outage at the hub. A massive fire had knocked out a transformer at the electricity substation which provides Heathrow with its energy, a blaze which also caused a power cut across west London.
Bosses at Heathrow apologised for the unprecedented situation, which caused the cancellation of more than 1,300 flights in and out of the airport, used by the likes of British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. Further disruption was expected today – but Heathrow has confirmed all operations will resume.
Scheduling may become an issue, though, as thousands of axed flights will need to be squeezed into Heathrow’s tight weekend timetable today. However, it says more staff have been drafted in to help handle the further 10,000 passengers today.
Are you stranded as a result of the Heathrow Airport closure? Contact webnews@mirror.co.uk.
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A spokesperson said: “We can confirm that Heathrow is open and fully operational today. Teams across the airport continue to do everything they can to support passengers impacted by yesterday’s outage at an off-airport power substation.
“We have hundreds of additional colleagues on hand in our terminals and we have added flights to today’s schedule to facilitate an extra 10,000 passengers travelling through the airport. Passengers travelling today should check with their airline for the latest information regarding their flight.”
It had tweeted: “Flights have resumed at Heathrow following yesterday’s power outage. If you’re due to travel today, we advise you to still contact your airline for your latest flight information before heading to the airport. We apologise for the disruption and appreciate your patience whilst operations return to normal.”
The hub was left a ghost town on Friday as all operations were suspended in what was feared to have been the largest blow to Heathrow since the Icelandic ash cloud 15 years ago. That cost the aviation industry £130 million a day. John Strickland, an aviation expert, told the media yesterday disruption caused by the power outage will likely last several days.
But according to flight tracking website FlightRadar24, British Airways (BA) flight BA56 from Johannesburg, South Africa was the first regular passenger flight to land at Heathrow since Thursday evening, touching down at 4.37am today.
BA, which has a major presence at Heathrow, said it expects to operate around 85% of its scheduled flights at the airport on Saturday. The airline would usually expect to run nearly 600 departures and arrivals on Saturday but it is understood cancellations will be made, where possible, to high-frequency routes.
A spokesman said: “We are planning to operate as many flights as possible to and from Heathrow on Saturday, but to recover an operation of our size after such a significant incident is extremely complex. We expect around 85% of our Saturday Heathrow schedule to run, but it is likely that all travelling customers will experience delays as we continue to navigate the challenges posed by Friday’s power outage at the airport.”
Restrictions on overnight flights were temporarily lifted to help ease congestion, the Department of Transport said. According to Heathrow’s website, there is no formal ban on night flights but since the 1960s, the Government has placed restrictions on them.
There is an annual limit of 5,800 night-time take-offs and landings between the hours of 11.30pm and 6am as well as a nightly limit, which caps the amount of noise the airport can make at night.
Of the power outage, Mr Woldbye said a back-up transformer failed, meaning systems had to be closed down in accordance with safety procedures so that power supplies could be restructured from two remaining substations to restore enough electricity to power what is described as a “mid-sized city”.
He apologised to stranded passengers and defended the airport’s response to the situation, saying the incident is as “as big as it gets for our airport” and that “we cannot guard ourselves 100%”.
The Metropolitan Police are not treating the incident as suspicious and the London Fire Brigade’s investigation is focusing on the electrical distribution equipment. The blaze happened at around 11.15pm on Thursday and, as a result, families had to be evacuated from nearby homes in Hayes. The Mirror contacted the National Grid, which manages the substation, in relation to the fire.
