LONDON — Late on Friday, Heathrow Airport began to stir back to life as flights gradually resumed following a severe power outage. The outage, caused by a blaze at a nearby electrical substation, disrupted operations for nearly 18 hours at one of the world’s busiest air hubs and left around 200,000 passengers stranded. A British Airways aircraft marked the resumed activity by landing just before dusk, and further flights, including a short hop from Manchester, soon followed. The first outbound flight also took to the skies later in the day.
The British government responded by temporarily lifting restrictions on overnight flights to address the backlog caused by the incident. Despite these efforts, the repercussions are expected to linger for days, with British Airways alone having scheduled eight long-haul services for Friday night and aiming for a complete schedule on Saturday, though ongoing disturbances are anticipated.
The halt at Heathrow brought severe repercussions for global travel due to its status as the largest airport in Europe and a major global travel hub. On a typical day, over 1,300 flights would connect through this airport, with British Airways shouldering the majority of that activity. Major routes significantly affected included those to New York’s JFK, Dubai, and Frankfurt, each facing thousands of canceled seat capacities.
Chief Executive of Heathrow, Thomas Woldbye, expressed regret over the situation but justified the closure on safety grounds, citing that the airport was forced to draw emergency power while restructuring their electrical distribution post-fire. Meanwhile, British Airways CEO Sean Doyle warned customers about the ongoing disruptions in the coming days and encouraged passengers to consider rebooking. In contrast, other London airports could serve as alternatives yet vary widely in accessibility and distance.
National Grid, responsible for electricity distribution, had developed a temporary fix that allowed most customers, including Heathrow, to regain power, although they could not ascertain when full restoration would be complete. Criticism surfaced regarding the airport’s reliance on a singular power source from the substation, with calls for an investigation into its vulnerability and the broader capacity for handling such disasters.
The disruption reached across the aviation sector, influencing European airline stocks negatively, and prompted Prime Minister Keir Starmer to call for a thorough inquiry to prevent repeat occurrences. Despite the large scope of the issue and continuing efforts to contain it, police and government officials currently find no evidence suggesting foul play in the substation fire.
Comparisons were drawn to past aviation halts caused by natural events, like the 2010 Icelandic volcano eruption that critically impacted global air routes. Heathrow’s shutdown stood out, not only in logistical terms but also for its financial cost to airlines stranded with the unexpected infrastructure failure.
