The decision to close Heathrow - Europe’s busiest airport - on Friday triggered many miserable outcomes after a fire at an electricity substation nearby.
The first inevitable consequence: more than 100 inbound flights that were already airborne either turned around and returned to their starting points, or diverted to dozens of airports across Europe and even North Africa.
The first take-off from Heathrow after the airport reopened was a British Airways flight to Riyadh, which took off at 9pm on Friday. Up to that point, more than 1,300 flights were cancelled and an estimated 240,000 passengers had their travel plans torn up.
The following day, as airlines battled to retrieve their aircraft from the foreign airfields where they had landed, more than 100 flights were cancelled.
I estimate the cost to airlines to amount to £100m in lost revenue and passenger care expenses. Heathrow and the many businesses its activities support will also have lost millions.
The wider damage to the economy is incalculable. Inbound tourism - the industry closest to “free money” for any nation - is particularly vulnerable. The UK’s appeal will be harmed in the short term and the longer term.
Worse than the economic wreckage is the emotional impact. Every one of these quarter-million-plus passengers had an important journey, which turned from joyful anticipation to crushed dreams.
The incident also put extreme pressure on people who work on the frontline of aviation across the world, facing travellers who were stressed and upset.
Given the immense harm caused, Heathrow still has some key questions to answer. The airport’s chief executive, Thomas Woldbye, spoke to me on Saturday.
He told The Independent it wasn’t an “easy decision” to close, adding: “But it’s also not that difficult, because our primary concern is safety. And if we can see we cannot safely operate the airfield, and guarantee passenger safety and [the safety of] colleagues and aircraft, then the decision to close is not that difficult.”
I have put further questions to the airport and the relevant responses are included below. Perhaps the transport select committee will obtain further answers when he appears before them on 2 April.
What conversations were had before the closure announcement?
At the very least British Airways - with over half the flights at Heathrow - and the two other biggest players, Virgin Atlantic and Lufthansa, were surely consulted about the impact on their operations. BA and Virgin were most exposed to diversions. And as a critical piece of national infrastructure, the government would want to make representations.
Why were aircraft already inbound not allowed to land?
Most of them were British Airways and Virgin Atlantic aircraft, using Terminals 3 and 5. The runways and control tower were always running. Reports say that power was still flowing to those terminals and that UK Border Force and baggage systems were running. Allowing aircraft, crew and passengers to arrive would:
- Make subsequent resumption far easier
- Cut the cost of the incident by many millions of pounds
- Reduce the distress caused to passengers
Heathrow said: “As the busiest airport in Europe, Heathrow uses as much energy as a small city, therefore it’s not possible to have backup for all of the energy we need to run our operation safely. We had to restructure our power supply and restart all of the systems. That is a major job – even once power was restored, thousands of systems across all of the airport had to be rebooted and tested to ensure they are safe and stable again to use. Safety remains our priority.”
Why did Heathrow decide to reopen early?
The exact wording of the announcement: “To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, we have no choice but to close Heathrow until 23:59 on 21 March 2025. We expect significant disruption over the coming days and passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens.”
Ten long-haul flights were able to take off later in the evening, to the relief of passengers and airlines.
But any similar messages in future are likely to be treated with some scepticism among the travelling public and the media, with some desperate passengers showing up on the off-chance.
When did Heathrow alert other airports to unexpected planes?
In order to get everyone from baggage handlers to UK Border Force staff ready, as much notice as possible was essential for Gatwick, Birmingham, Manchester and other key airports to the arrival of unexpected aircraft.
Will Heathrow compensate airlines for the incident?
The most recent incident with a similar impact was the failure of the Nats air traffic control computer system on the August bank holiday in 2023. Airlines were furious they could not recoup tens of millions of pounds in losses.
What has Heathrow learnt from failures at other UK airports?
In November last year, a false alarm at a security checkpoint at Gatwick South Terminal led to its immediate evacuation, including of the airport’s railway station. Yet the Sussex airport made some good tactical decisions with its partners to allow as many passengers as possible to travel.
Trains stopped at the adjacent station of Horley rather than Gatwick, allowing access to North Terminal. And passengers arriving on flights to the South Terminal were bussed to the North Terminal for processing. It would surely make sense for Heathrow to study the incident at its biggest UK rival to inform its contingency planning.
Did Heathrow give due consideration to the impact?
Heathrow airport said: “We worked tirelessly throughout the night, and closely with our partners to ensure we could safely open as soon as possible.”
But we need to know whether all possible less-damaging options were considered.
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