Flights at Britain’s Heathrow Airport began resuming late on Friday after a fire knocked out its power supply, forcing Europe’s busiest airport to shut for the day. Thousands of passengers were stranded, causing global travel disruption.
Heathrow stated that its teams had worked tirelessly to reopen the world’s fifth-busiest airport after a massive fire engulfed a substation near the airport on Thursday night.
Travelers were advised to stay away as all operations came to a halt.
The airport had been scheduled to handle 1,351 flights on Friday, carrying up to 291,000 passengers. However, planes were diverted to other airports in Britain and across Europe, while many long-haul flights returned to their departure points.
Heathrow said there would be a limited number of flights on Friday, primarily to relocate aircraft and bring planes into London.
“Tomorrow morning, we expect to be back in full operation, to 100% operation as a normal day,” said Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye. “I would like to apologize to the many people whose travel has been affected. We are very sorry for all the inconvenience.”
Police said there was no indication of foul play, but counter-terrorism officers were leading the inquiry due to their expertise and the critical nature of the infrastructure.
The closure not only caused frustration among travelers but also sparked anger from airlines, which questioned how such vital infrastructure could fail.
The airline industry now faces potential financial losses amounting to tens of millions of pounds, alongside an impending dispute over who should bear the costs.
“You would think they would have significant backup power,” one senior executive from a European airline told Reuters.
Heathrow’s Woldbye defended the airport’s response, saying backup systems had functioned as expected.
“This (power supply) is a bit of a weak point,” he admitted. “But, of course, we cannot guard ourselves 100% against every contingency, and this is one of them.”
When asked about financial liability, he stated that procedures were in place but added, “We don’t have liabilities in place for incidents like this.”
British Transport Minister Heidi Alexander said the situation had been beyond Heathrow’s control.
“They have swiftly implemented their resilience plans and have worked closely with emergency responders and airline operators,” she told reporters.
“There are no suggestions at the moment of foul play, but the investigation remains open-minded.”
Several airlines, including JetBlue, American Airlines, Air Canada, Air India, Delta Air Lines, Qantas, United Airlines, British Airways (owned by IAG), and Virgin Atlantic, were either diverted or forced to return to their original airports, according to data from flight analytics firm Cirium.
