Closing summary
The blog is closing now. Here’s a summary of today’s main events, following a fire on Thursday night at an electricity substation in Hayes, west London, which left Heathrow airport without electricity.
Flights have resumed to and from Heathrow airport, after National Grid found “an interim solution”. Some passengers travelled for over 32 hours to reach the airport, after spending time “circling” in the air.
Overnight restrictions, which limit the number of night-time take-offs and landings, have been temporarily lifted to ease congestion.
The airport is expected to be “back in full operation” on Saturday and passengers are being asked to come to the airport as they normally would.
There are “no suggestions of foul play” in the cause of the fire, according to the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander. She added that the situation was “unprecedented”.
Shares in airlines including British Airways, Lufthansa and Ryanair have fallen
It is estimated the closure will cost the aviation sector about £20m a day.
Disruption is expected to continue over the coming days, the British Airways chair Sean Doyle said, adding that more than 670 flights carrying around 103,000 passengers were affected by the fire.
Backup systems at the airport “worked the way they should”, Heathrow Airport chief executive, Thomas Woldbye, said as he admitted that the power supply of Heathrow is “a bit of a weak point”.
Around 200,000 passengers have been affected by the closure, with over 1,300 flights disrupted.
The Metropolitan police has now confirmed that the counter-terrorism command is leading inquiries as to the source of fire at the substation in Hayes, but stressed there is “currently no indication of foul play.”
Thanks for following this blog with me, Donna Ferguson. For more on this story, read our report ‘Questions to answer’: Downing Street vows to learn from Heathrow closure.
‘Questions to answer’: Downing Street vows to learn from Heathrow closure
by Gwyn Topham, Rowena Mason, Vikram Dodd and Jillian Ambrose
Downing Street has said there are “questions to answer” after a fire at an electrical substation closed down London Heathrow airport, stopping around 1,300 planes and disrupting the journeys of hundreds of thousands of global passengers.
Counter-terror police are leading the investigation into the “unprecedented” incident that left Britain’s biggest airport unable to function as engineers tried to restore power, but said there was “no indication of foul play”.
Two people familiar with the investigation said officials do not believe the fire was the result of any criminal activity or a hostile state and was more likely to be accidental.
Heathrow announced it would partially reopen on Friday evening, but airlines warned that the closure could continue to have a “huge impact” on passengers in the coming days. The airport said it hoped to run a full operation on Saturday.
Ministers acknowledged the “immense distress and disruption” caused to passengers, vowing “we will learn the lessons”.
At last, I can share some happy pictures of planes landing and passengers arriving:
Updated
The UK’s critical infrastructure is not hardy enough and the government needs to strengthen Britain’s power networks to be able to withstand major shocks, experts have warned.
Alan Mendoza, the executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, a London-based thinktank focused on security and democracy in Europe, said the incident is particularly worrisome given recent comments by Britain’s security services that Russia is conducting a reckless campaign of sabotage across Europe.
“The U.K.’s critical national infrastructure is not sufficiently hardened for anywhere near the level it would need to be at to give us confidence this won’t happen again,” he said. “I mean, if one fire can shut down Heathrow’s primary systems … it tells you something’s badly wrong with our system of management of such disasters.”
Robin Potter, an expert on resilience at London-based think tank Chatham House, said that successive governments have been slow to respond to repeated recommendations from the National Infrastructure Commission to strengthen the ability of Britain’s power, communications, transport and water networks to withstand major shocks.
“We still have yet to see a kind of clear response from the government to those recommendations,” he said. “And we hope that maybe in the government’s upcoming resilience review, which we expect will be published at some point this year, it might seek to address some of those questions.”
Mendoza said that the goal should be to have backup systems that can be put in place quickly to mitigate the disruption caused by any so-called black swan – or unpredictable – events.
“The reality is there are always going to be issues that surprise you — black swans, as it were,” he said. “The key to it is not necessarily to have to predict black swans, because in many cases they are unpredictable, but it’s about having the fortitude and the sort of bend in the system to be able to get back up to working speed very quickly.'’
The closure is estimated to have disrupted the travel plans of 200,000 people.
It has also had an impact on the airport’s ability to transport goods.
About 4,000 tons of cargo have also been stranded by the closure, according to Anita Mendiratta, an aviation and leadership consultant.
She estimated that it would take two to four days to clear all the backlogs.
“This is an extreme situation where the entire aviation ecosystem is impacted,” she said.
“There will be two things that will be happening as a priority No. 1. First is airport operations and understanding, from an electrical system point of view, what has been impacted, if anything,” she said. “Did anything short out, for instance? What needs to be reactivated? And then how do you literally turn the airport back on again? Passenger and cargo.”
In addition, she noted, “there’s the issue of actually managing the human component of it. You have passengers that are impacted, crew are impacted and operations, so being able to remobilise everything.”
The London fire brigade has said that 10 fire engines and 70 firefighters responded to a fire at the substation that was reported at 11:23pm on Thursday.
The blaze has been contained but firefighters will remain at the scene throughout the day today, the fire brigade said.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said the “catastrophic” fire appeared to have knocked out a backup generator as well as the electrical substation that supplies power to Heathrow Airport.
“It’s obviously an unprecedented event,” Miliband told Sky News. “Obviously, with any incident like this we will want to understand why it happened and what if any lessons it has for our infrastructure,” he added.
The situation at Heathrow has caused “travel chaos” at airports in Ireland, the country’s deputy premier has said.
About 50 flights to Dublin, Belfast City Airport and City of Derry Airport were cancelled.
Shannon Airport in the west of Ireland has facilitated six diverted flights which had originally been scheduled to land at Heathrow, involving flights from Toronto, Atlanta, Bridgetown Barbados, Boston, Orlando and Newark.
Speaking to media on Friday, Tanaiste Simon Harris paid tribute to those involved in resolving the situation.
He said: “The route between Dublin and Heathrow is the second busiest route in Europe and therefore that caused a significant challenge today for commuters to and from Dublin in relation to Heathrow.
“But it does seem that everything that could have been done to try and swiftly get things back on track has happened and I’m grateful to all of those involved in making that happen.”
Dublin Airport said in a statement that further disruption to flights between Dublin Airport and Heathrow over the coming days is possible.
“We continue to monitor developments at Heathrow and remain in close consultation with affected airlines regarding when flights between Dublin Airport and Heathrow may recommence,” it said.
City of Derry Airport said on Friday evening: “We are awaiting confirmation of our flight operation to London Heathrow tomorrow.
“We ask passengers to continue to check with their airline regarding their flight status before coming to the airport. All other routes from City of Derry Airport to Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester and Liverpool continue to operate as usual.”
Updated
Restrictions on overnight flights have been lifted
Restrictions on overnight flights have been temporarily lifted to help ease congestion at Heathrow, the Department for Transport has said in a post on X.
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, PA reports.
The DfT also said it had allowed passengers to use rail tickets flexibly.
Travel consultant Paul Charles has told Reuters that Heathrow’s closure could cost the aviation sector about £20m a day, with no guarantee the airport would reopen on Saturday.
“Heathrow is such a vital piece of the UK’s infrastructure that it should have fail-safe systems,” he added.
Tony Cox, an international risk management consultant, said: “I can’t remember a piece of critical infrastructure being wholly shut down for at least a day because of a fire. I can’t think of anything comparable.”
A passenger has finally touched down at the airport after travelling for over 32 hours.
Joshua Richardson’s flight from Quantum, Perth, was diverted to Paris at 4am today, where over 400 passengers from two planes were put on coaches to their final destinations.
He arrived in Heathrow after travelling for over 32 hours in total, still needing to get to Oxford.
The 31-year-old told PA News: “We first found out because the in-flight entertainment changed from Heathrow to Paris, and people were like, what’s going on?
“The pilot said Heathrow had lost power – the only place we could divert was Paris.
“We had to circle Paris for a bit, and you could see other planes circling too.
“There’s going to be some stories of people being messed up by this, so I won’t complain. All I am is tired and cranky.”
Passengers on board Qantas flights to Heathrow Airport from Singapore and Perth on Friday were diverted to Paris before taking buses to London, the airline has said.
A Qantas spokesperson said: “Our Singapore-London and Perth-London services were diverted to Paris today, with buses arranged to take customers on to London.
“Our teams are working hard to support impacted customers and we thank them for their patience.”
First plane lands at Heathrow since the fire
The first plane has landed at London’s Heathrow Airport since the fire, Associated Press reports.
The British Airways jet touched down on Friday about 18 hours after the airport was closed due to a massive power outage.
Heathrow will be back to normal on Saturday
The chief executive of Heathrow said the airport expects to return to “100% operation” on Saturday after an “unprecedented” day of disruption.
Thomas Woldbye told the press: “We expect to be back in full operation, so 100% operation as a normal day.
“[Passengers] should come to the airport as they normally would. There’s no reason to come earlier.”
Of the airport’s closure on Friday after an outage caused by a fire, Mr Woldbye said: “This is unprecedented.
“It’s never happened before and that’s why I’m saying it has been a major incident.”
The disruption at Heathrow is also being felt in the stock market, Reuters reports.
Shares of British Airways parent IAG fell 1.9%, Lufthansa was down 1.7% and Ryanair dropped 2.3%. The travel and leisure sector closed 1.6% lower.
Sree Kochugovindan, senior research economist at aberdeen, said: “The full extent of the impact will depend on how quickly the airport reopens and whether this is a one-off incident. The near-term impact for airlines and businesses reliant on cargo is likely significant but temporary.”
Power supply a "weak point" for the airport, Heathrow chief exec admits
Heathrow Airport’s chief executive Thomas Woldbye has also apologised to passengers disrupted by the closure of the airport on Friday but defended its response to the incident, saying “this is as big as it gets for our airport”.
He admitted to reporters outside the airport that the power supply of Heathrow is “a bit of a weak point” for the airport.
He said: “I’d like to stress that this has been an incident of major severity. It’s not a small fire.
“We have lost power equal to that of a mid-sized city and our backup systems have been working as they should but they are not sized to run the entire airport.”
Asked if there is a weak point in Heathrow’s power system, he said: “You can say that but of course contingencies of certain sizes we cannot guard ourselves against, 100%, and this is one of them.
“This has been a major incident. I mean, short of anybody getting hurt, this is as big as it gets for our airport and we are actually coming back quite fast I would say, when you consider the amount of systems that we have to shut down then bring back up and make sure that they’re safe.”
He added: “Of course, we [will] look at anything we can learn from this, but I should say our backup systems have worked the way they should, our crisis management has worked the way it should.
“This just takes time when we have an incident of this major severity.”
Updated
Passengers are finally able to walk in to Heathrow. It’s been a long day for many of them.
No suggestion foul play caused the fire at Heathrow, says transport minister
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said she had spoken to Heathrow Airport’s chief executive about “any lessons that might be learned for the future” after the fire at a substation which grounded flights on Friday.
There is no suggestion of foul play in the fire that caused Heathrow to close today, she said.
Like the British Airways chair and CEO Sean Doyle earlier (see 16.41) she described the situation at Heathrow as “absolutely unprecedented situation”, adding that it had been “outside of Heathrow’s control”.
She added: “I certainly didn’t expect to wake up this morning and see that huge fire happening.”
She thanked the emergency services for their response and the National Grid for getting power restored to the airport, as well as staff at Heathrow who have “worked tirelessly all day to get to a point today where flights are able to land again and where the airport hopes to resume full operations tomorrow”.
Asked what questions there are to answer about the incident, she said: “We need to understand what caused an incident of this magnitude at an electricity substation that is very close to a critical piece of national infrastructure.”
She said she was in close contact with the Energy Secretary, the home secretary and with Heathrow to “make sure that any lessons we need to learn from the systems that the airport has in place are learned”.
She added that counter-terrorism police are involved in identifying the cause of the substation fire because it took place next to a critical piece of national infrastructure.
“The counter-terrorism command has specific capabilities and capacities that mean that they are used to conducting investigations at pace, and it’s really important that we identify the cause of this quickly.
“There are no suggestions at the moment of foul play, but you will appreciate the investigation, keeps an open mind, and our priority is identifying the cause as soon as possible.”
Updated
The personal finance website Moneysavingexpert.com has published a detailed guide to explain your travel and refund rights if you have been affected by the disruption at Heathrow.
Reporter Emily White writes:
Flying FROM Heathrow on any airline? You’re covered
Flying TO Heathrow on a UK or EU airline? You’re also covered
Flying TO Heathrow on a non-UK/EU airline? The UK/EU rules don’t apply, so you’ll need to approach the airline directly for any support regarding delays or cancellations. Alternatively, you could also try your travel insurer.
She advises that your airline should provide food and drink (or vouchers to buy them) if you’re delayed for more than two hours on a short-haul flight, three hours on medium haul (for example, Manchester to Malaga) or four hours for long haul. “If it’s unable to, you can buy your own and claim it back, but make sure you keep receipts,” she wrote. “Check if your airline’s website has any guidance on what it’ll cover.”
The airline should also provide accommodation if needed. “If the flight is delayed overnight you’re entitled to a hotel, and the airline must also provide transport to and from it,” she added. “Ideally it will arrange the hotel for you, so always check before you book somewhere.”
Rory Boland, Editor of Which? Travel, said that although the law requires airlines to reroute passengers to their destination at the earliest opportunity, including with other carriers when necessary, sometimes airlines refuse to do so.
He said: “If passengers are being told by their airline to wait days for the next available flight, and have exhausted efforts to get them to rebook them on earlier departures with an alternate airline then they are within their rights to make that booking themselves and claim the money back.
“This should be a last resort, as your claim may well be contested by the airline leading to a lengthy claims process.”
We have an update about what top 10 airlines whose aircraft were set to arrive at Heathrow on Friday are saying about the closure to their passengers, thanks to research by reporters at Reuters.
Aer Lingus:
“Cancelling all flights to and from London Heathrow Airport until further notice today following the closure of the airport by the authorities.”
Air India:
“London Heathrow-bound AI129 from Mumbai is returning to Mumbai; AI161 from Delhi is diverting to Frankfurt. All our remaining flights to and from London Heathrow, including AI111 of this morning, have been cancelled for 21 March.”
American Airlines:
“American issued a travel alert, providing additional flexibility for customers impacted by the London Heathrow Airport closure.” Source: Data from Cirium Ascend, company statements. Note: The seats represent capacity, not ticketed passengers.”
British Airways:
“We’ve been given clearance by Heathrow Airport to depart eight of our long-haul flights today from 7pm. We are now urgently contacting customers to let them know so they can make their way to the airport from 5pm.”
Delta Air Lines:
“Delta has suspended operations to Heathrow Airport and provided customers additional flexibility in rebooking their travel.”
JetBlue:
All JetBlue flights to and from Heathrow will be cancelled and additional flights may be scheduled once the airport reopens to accommodate affected passengers.
Qantas
“Our Singapore-London and Perth-London services were diverted to Paris today, with buses arranged to take customers on to London.”
Ryanair:
The airline said in a post on X that it had added up to eight rescue flights between Dublin and London Stansted to rescue passengers affected by Heathrow’s closure.
United Airlines:
“We will continue to adjust our flying schedule to London in close coordination with airport authorities. At this time, we expect to operate most scheduled Friday departures to London.”
Virgin Atlantic:
“This has had a significant impact on our flying programme both into and out of Heathrow and all Virgin Atlantic arriving and departing flights are cancelled until midday on March 21, with the rest of today’s schedule currently under review.”
Scandinavian Airlines System:
“All our 12 round trips are so far cancelled to and from Heathrow. We will keep affected passengers informed.”
Singapore Airlines:
A spokesperson for the airline said four flights from Singapore to London were affected and four flights from London to Singapore had been cancelled.
Updated
More people have been getting in touch with my colleagues Rachel Obordo and Jedidajah Otte to share their stories of all the travel disruption they have been experiencing.
Research engineer Richard, 35, from East Anglia is stranded in Shanghai after waiting at the boarding gate for nearly 10 hours. He’s been on a business trip in Shanghai for two weeks and is waiting for his flight to be rearranged.
“I’m in no rush to get back to the UK and I wouldn’t really be able to pay for a replacement flight anyway. Thankfully British Airways has booked all passengers into a hotel around 20 minutes from Shanghai Pudong airport. I hope I will be able to fly tomorrow.”
James from Devon is also stuck in China, in Guangzhou, after a five-day visit to look for new interior goods at a trade show. He said his airline China Southern have been “excellent” and have provided him and other passengers with accommodation and food vouchers.
“They’ve even been checking in with me every few hours which is nothing short of amazing,” said the 37-year-old.
“I need to get back to the UK and if I don’t get a solid update within the next few hours I will most likely start to look for other options. I’m not 100% sure when I’ll be returning home, but for now I’m very comfortable.
Some photos have emerged of the fire at the substation and the damage it caused:
Aviation consultant John Strickland has told the PA news agency the closure of Heathrow for an entire day is “a massive dislocation to have to recover from”.
He likened the disruption to what happened after the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, when flights were grounded across the US, saying: “It’s a contained version of 9/11.”
Heathrow is Europe’s largest airport, with more than 83.9 million passengers travelling through its terminals in 2024.
Long-haul flights will resume at 7pm
British Airways has been given clearance for eight long-haul flights to depart Heathrow Airport today from 7pm, the airline said in a statement.
The airport is now “urgently contacting customers to let them know so they can make their way to the airport from 5pm”.
The only customers who should make their way to Heathrow Airport are those booked onto the following flights:
BA055 to Johannesburg
BA057 to Johannesburg
BA011 to Singapore
BA259 to Riyadh
BA045 to Cape Town
BA059 to Cape Town
BA015 to Sydney via Singapore
BA249 to Buenos Aires via Rio de Janeiro
Updated
Mark, 34, a structural engineer from Brighton, was due to fly home after a holiday in India and is now stranded in Mumbai.
He told my colleagues Rachel Obordo and Jedidajah Otte: “My partner and I were told two hours before our British Airways flight from Mumbai to Heathrow that the flight was cancelled,” he said. “BA did not inform anyone of this earlier so we travelled to the airport to be told by staff at the check-in desk. There was a cursory email from BA as we were on the way to the airport saying Heathrow is closed, that the flight is delayed and that we should check their website for flight status - which simply stated ‘delayed’.”
The couple was initially told by BA airport staff that they would be put on a different flight the next day, and to book themselves a hotel which would be fully refunded, which they did, shelling out £180 for one night.
A short while later, another BA airport staff member informed the couple that only 7000 Rupees (around £60) would be refunded for hotel costs - less than half than Mark and his partner had spent hastily as local hotels were filling up rapidly - without making clear whether this was applicable to multiple nights if necessary or the total amount they would be compensated for.
British Airways only emailed the couple nine hours after the flight was cancelled, with a link to their website where the couple’s only option was to have their flight booking refunded. When the couple checked flights, there were no BA flights left until next week.
“We can’t get hold of anyone from BA to rebook our flight,” Mark said. “It’s all virtual assistants in the online chat, with 96 people ahead of us in the queue.”
The situation at Heathrow “obviously couldn’t be helped,” Mark said. “BA has been appalling though. We just want to get back to the UK and have any expenses paid, but it’s not looking promising. I need to help my sister as she’s unwell.”
People have been getting in touch with my colleagues Rachel Obordo and Jedidajah Otte to share their stories of travel disruption.
Marélie, 28, and her boyfriend Carl, both from London, are stuck in Philadelphia waiting to return home after spending three weeks on holiday in Mexico. They were onboard their connecting flight with American Airlines when they were told to disembark after 30 minutes. “Our flight was at 10pm and we were kept in the gate area until around 1am before we learned about the situation at Heathrow,” said Marélie. “We ended up sleeping at the airport.”
They were due to return to London today before returning to work on Monday but instead have had to pay for new flights, food, transport and accommodation. “It’s costing us nearly £1,000 for the both of us to get home on Sunday,” she said.
“We’ve got a flight arriving at Gatwick on Sunday morning, with a layover of 12 hours in Orlando. I feel absolutely let down by American Airlines. The process of having to book a new flight has been stressful with seats and prices changing by the time you get to the end of the booking process.”
More than 100,000 British Airways customers have had their flights cancelled
The situation at Heathrow today was “unprecedented” the British Airways chairman and CEO Sean Doyle has said.
Doyle issued a video statement, saying British Airways had not seen a closure of Heathrow on this scale for “many years”.
He warned that the power outage would continue to have a “huge impact” on all British Airways customers over the coming days, as BA has cancelled every short-haul flight and ‘the majority’ of long-haul flights that were scheduled to operate at Heathrow today.
Online flight tracking service Flightradar24 said more than 1,350 flights were scheduled to take off or land at the airport on Friday.
“To give you an idea of the scale of disruption we face which we’re working to minimise, today we were due to operate more than 670 flights carrying around 107,000 customers, with similar numbers planned over the weekend.”
Doyle said the disruption to passengers is expected to continue: “We have flight and cabin crew colleagues and planes that are currently at locations where we weren’t planning on them to be. This is because we had to divert flights that were in the air when it became clear we weren’t going to be able to land at Heathrow,” added Sean.
“Our crews are only legally allowable to operate for a certain number of hours over any given period of time, which adds further complexity into our planning. That means even if things do get back up and running soon, we will have the logistical issue of getting new crews out to operate those aircraft.
“In addition, our engineering and maintenance operation have also had no power. This is being addressed but is another example of the incredibly challenging situation we find ourselves in.”
Doyle apologised for the disruption and said the airline is will put “all available resources” onto phone lines, and extended the calls centre opening times. Updates are also being posted on its website and sent out via its app.
“We will of course work at pace to get customers and colleagues to where they need to be as safely and as quickly as possible,” he said.
“I am sorry to everybody who’s experiencing this disruption and ask you for your understanding while we work to recover our operation from such a significant challenge which is complex to work through.
“Thank you to our customers for bearing with us and the thousands of our colleagues around the world for their hard work.”
Updated
Heathrow to resume some flights today
Heathrow has apologised for the inconvenience caused by the power outage.
A Heathrow spokesperson said: “Our teams have worked tirelessly since the incident to ensure a speedy recovery. We’re pleased to say we’re now safely able to begin some flights later today.
“Our first flights will be repatriation flights and relocating aircraft. Please do not travel to the airport unless your airline has advised you to do so.
“We will now work with the airlines on repatriating the passengers who were diverted to other airports in Europe. We hope to run a full operation tomorrow and will provide further information shortly.
“Our priority remains the safety of our passengers and those working at the airport. As the busiest airport in Europe, Heathrow uses as much energy as a small city, therefore getting back to a full and safe operation takes time. We apologise for the inconvenience caused by this incident.”
Updated
Power has been restored at Heathrow and it is reopening
Power has been restored at Heathrow airport and it has begun the process of reopening.
The airport said it is “safely able to begin some flights later today”.
The news comes as National Grid announced an “interim solution” has been found to allow power to be restored to the airport (see 15.09)
Updated
Unclear when Heathrow will reopen, despite 'interim' fix - summary
Heathrow Airport in London, Europe’s busiest airport, remains closed until at least 11.59pm tonight following a fire at an electricity substation in Hayes, west London, which left it without electricity.
Around 200,000 passengers have been affected by the closure, with over 1,300 flights disrupted.
National Grid believes it may have found “an interim solution” which could allow it to restore electricity supplies to energy users, including “the ability to resupply the parts of Heathrow airport” connected to its fire-damaged substation.
There have been reports about parts of the airport appearing to be receiving energy again, with lights on in Terminal 4.
But Heathrow said it does not have “clarity on when power may be reliably restored,” and “passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens.”
The airport also responded to widespread criticism, including from IATA, of its back-up energy systems, saying they worked “as expected” when the substation fire started, but “they are not designed to allow us to run a full operation.”
The Metropolitan police has now confirmed that the counter-terrorism command is leading inquiries as to the source of fire at the substation in Hayes, but stressed there is “currently no indication of foul play.”
A spokesperson for the British prime minister has said the government expected “there will be significant disruption in the hours and days ahead and we will do everything we can to support those affected.”
And that’s all from me, Jakub Krupa, as I’m handing the blog over to Donna Ferguson.
While there has been no further updates from Heathrow yet, US carrier United Airlines told Reuters it expected its flights to be able to leave the United States later on Friday and land at London’s Heathrow Airport on Saturday morning local time.
Similar signals were reported from Air Canada.
But, to stress, there has been no formal confirmation of any of that from the airport authorities and their previous advice for passengers to not travel to the airport until it reopens remains in place.
National Grid found 'interim solution' to supply electricity after substation fire
National Grid believes it may have found “an interim solution” which could allow it to restore electricity supplies to energy users, including “the ability to resupply the parts of Heathrow airport” connected to its fire-damaged substation.
A spokesman for the grid company said Heathrow was currently evaluating the plan which involves reconfiguring the flow of electricity to bypass the damaged substation. These efforts have already restored power to the last remaining homes left without electricity after the blaze, the spokesman said.
In the meantime National Grid will continue to work on returning the substation to normal operations, they added.
Here is the statement, in full:
A National Grid spokesperson said:
“We’re sorry for the disruption caused by a fire at our North Hyde substation and for the loss of power supplies in the area. Teams have been working around the clock to restore power as soon as possible.
Working in partnership with the local network operator SSEN Distribution (SSEN), the network has been reconfigured to restore all customers impacted, including the ability to resupply the parts of Heathrow airport that are connected to North Hyde.
This is an interim solution while we carry out further work at North Hyde to return the substation and our network to normal operation.
We are continuing to work closely with all stakeholders to manage this incident, and are focused on returning to normal resilience levels as soon as possible.”
It would appear the power is back on at Heathrow Terminal 4, PA news agency reported.
It said the lights are back on in the main building and the lifts in the multi-storey car park are also working again.
Earlier today, the London fire brigade said at its briefing that Terminals 2 and 4 continued to have no power.
No clarity on when power may be reliably restored, Heathrow says
Heathrow said it does not have “clarity on when power may be reliably restored,” and “passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens.”
In a statement carried by PA, a Heathrow spokesperson said:
“Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage across the airport due to a large fire at a nearby electrical substation.
“Whilst fire crews are responding to the incident, we do not have clarity on when power may be reliably restored.
We expect significant disruption over the coming days and passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens.
We will provide an update when more information on the resumption of operations is available.
We know this will be disappointing for passengers and we want to reassure that we are working as hard as possible to resolve the situation.”
Updated
Key event
It is understood there are still discussions within Whitehall about whether a Cobra meeting is necessary, which could take place if the closure at Heathrow drags on for a second day.
Downing Street would not say on Friday whether it is confident Heathrow Airport will be fully reopened by Saturday, saying it was “clearly a fast-moving situation.”
Keir Starmer’s deputy official spokesperson said it was for the emergency services and Heathrow to say when it would reopen but added:
“We do expect there will be significant disruption in the hours and days ahead and we will do everything we can to support those affected.”
He also urged “caution against speculating” about the cause of the fire, pointing out that it was premature to identify the cause while it is still burning.
Asked about an inquiry and whether National Grid had questions to answer, the No 10 spokesperson suggested any investigation should wait until after the situation is under control but added:
“There are questions to answer on how this has happened and what can be done to prevent the scale of disruption we’ve seen from happening again, once the situation is under control,” Starmer’s official spokesperson said.
Heathrow's back-up systems worked 'as expected,' but not designed to 'run full operation', airport says
Heathrow has now responded to earlier criticism, including from IATA, on its back-up energy systems, saying they worked “as expected” when the substation fire started.
In a statement quoted by PA, it said:
“We have multiple sources of energy into Heathrow.
But when a source is interrupted, we have back-up diesel generators and uninterruptable power supplies in place, and they all operated as expected.
Our back-up systems are safety systems which allow us to land aircraft and evacuate passengers safely, but they are not designed to allow us to run a full operation.
As the busiest airport in Europe, Heathrow uses as much energy as a small city, therefore it’s not possible to have back-up for all of the energy we need to run our operation safely.
“We are implementing a process which will allow us to redirect power to the affected areas, but this is a safety critical process which takes time, and maintaining safety remains our priority, so we have taken the decision to close the airport for today.”
BA offers 'flexible' options to rebook this weekend's Heathrow flights for later dates
British Airways has updated its statement on the disruption caused by the fire, offering passengers an option to rebook their flights between now and the end of the weekend to a later date for free.
Here is the statement:
Due to a power outage in the London Heathrow area, London Heathrow Airport is currently closed.
As a result, customers due to travel from Heathrow on Friday 21 March are advised not to travel to the airport until further notice. We will be contacting those who are due to travel on Friday via email to advise them of their options.
To offer our customers more certainty, we’re offering those booked to travel to or from Heathrow in the coming days (March 21 to March 23 inclusive) flexible options to rebook to a later date for free. Please visit Manage My Booking to see the options available.
We kindly ask customers to contact us via phone only if they’re due to travel imminently, to allow us to help affected customers as quickly as possible.
We are closely monitoring the situation and will provide more information as soon as we have further details.
No10 would not say if Heathrow will be fully reopened by Saturday
Downing Street would not say whether it is confident Heathrow Airport will be fully reopened by Saturday, PA reported.
Asked whether this would be the case, a No 10 spokesperson said: “Well, it’s clearly a fast-moving situation.”
“It will be for emergency services and Heathrow to update on timescales for when this situation will be resolved. We do expect there will be significant direct disruption in the hours and days ahead.”
The spokesperson confirmed there was a “cross-government” call on Friday focusing on the immediate aftermath of the fire, PA reported.
National Grid 'not in a position to rule anything in or out' on fire causes
The head of National Grid’s electricity transmission business has refused to rule out that an act of sabotage may be behind the substation fire which cut power supplier to Heathrow airport.
“We’re not in a position to rule anything in or out,” Alice Delahunty, the president of National Grid’s transmission business, told the Guardian. “Our focus has been getting homes and businesses back on supply safely. There will be a time for a full and thorough investigation, but the focus has been on restoring power.”
Delahunty said that the “very significant and serious incident” was “extraordinarily rare” across National Grid’s network.
The team is collecting “rigorous documentation” relating to the incident but it was not yet possible to verify any “rumours and speculation” over its cause, she added.
Delahunty confirmed that the fire damaged the substation’s primary transformer, while the backup transformer sustained heat damage during the blaze.
The team is currently focused on bringing a third transformer online as soon as possible, and is working with the owner of the local power distribution network to reconfigure the flow of electricity to reach homes and the Heathrow airport, she said.
She declined to give a timeline for the ongoing work.
Ofgem to commission review of Hayes substation blaze
The energy regulator, Ofgem, has promised to commission a review of the substation blaze which left up to 100,000 people without power and ground Heathrow airport to a halt.
Akshay Kaul, the director general for infrastructure at Ofgem, said: “We are clear the top priority is reconnecting both domestic and business customers, including Heathrow airport, as soon as possible and that vulnerable customers are supported in the meantime.”
“Once power is restored, we will commission a review to understand the cause of this incident and what lessons can be learned.”
Tens of thousands of customers have already had their power restored with restoration of supplies to the remaining 500 customers and Heathrow airport underway.
Energy industry experts have questioned why Heathrow was so vulnerable to a major fault at one of National Grid’s substation within the local network with no immediate alternative electricity routes available through the local networks.
Kaul said: “We expect network operators to keep their customers fully updated on the support available, including welfare provision, and when power will be restored.”
Met's counter-terrorism command leads the investigation, police says, but 'no indication of foul play'
The Metropolitan police has now confirmed that the counter-terrorism command is leading inquiries as to the source of fire at the substation in Hayes, while stressing there is “currently no indication of foul play.”
A spokesperson for the Met said:
“We are working with the London fire brigade to establish the cause of the fire which remains under investigation. While there is currently no indication of foul play we retain an open mind at this time.
Given the location of the sub-station and the impact this incident has had on critical national infrastructure, the Met’s counter-terrorism command is now leading inquiries.
This is due to the specialist resources and capabilities within that command that can assist in progressing this investigation at pace to minimise disruption and identify the cause.”
Updated
'Clear planning failure' if Heathrow depends on single power source
International Air Transport Association, the trade association for airlines, said it would be a “clear planning failure” if Heathrow turned out to be “dependent on a single power source without an alternative.”
“From that arises the question of who bears the costs of taking care of disrupted travellers. We must find a fairer allocation of passenger care costs than airlines alone picking up the tab when infrastructure fails. Until that happens, Heathrow has very little incentive to improve,” IATA’s director general Willie Walsh said in a statement.
Walsh added that “today’s closing of Heathrow will inconvenience a huge number of travellers,” as he called it a “yet another case of Heathrow letting down both travelers and airlines.”
Counter-terrorism involvement 'routine' and 'nothing more than precaution'
Investigators continue to believe the fire was not the result of a deliberate act, but stress inquiries are at an early stage.
Detectives from Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command are being deployed as part of the investigation, but that is described as routine and nothing more than a precaution.
Counter-terrorism detectives bring some specialist skills but also they have the security clearance to access sensitive material as investigators try to establish the fire’s cause.
Authorities, including from the intelligence service, are monitoring and would be updated if the police led investigation suggests anything suspicious led to the fire.
Heathrow is part of the UK’s critical national infrastructure and thus a potential target for terrorism or sabotage in pursuance of a cause. Espionage and sabotage in the UK backed by state actors has risen in recent years.
Updated
Prime minister Starmer 'receiving regular updates' on Heathrow outage
UK prime minister Keir Starmer has posted an update on Heathrow outage, saying he is “receiving regular updates” on the incident.
Here is what he said:
“I know the situation in Heathrow is causing distress and disruption, especially for those travelling or without power in their homes. I’m receiving regular updates and I’m in close contact with partners on the ground. Thanks to our emergency workers for keeping people safe.”
What are your rights after flight cancellations?
Travellers have woken up to the news that Heathrow airport is closed due to a nearby fire. Friday is usually the busiest day of the week for travel as people return from business trips or head off on holiday, with more than 1,350 flights due to take off and land.
If you are among the up to 291,000 passengers whose flights have been disrupted by the power outage, you have significant rights in relation to replacement flights, refunds and general customer care.
Updated
During the briefing, Smith reveals that firefighters evacuated 29 people from neighbouring properties and established a 200-meter cordon as a precaution, with further 150 people evacuated to a rest centre.
No injuries were reported, he confirmed.
That concludes the LFB’s briefing.
Updated
No air quality issues after Hayes substation fire, fire brigade says
London fire brigade’s assistant commissioner Smith is also asked about air quality consequences of the fire.
He insists that there were “no issues with the air quality as we stand,” and reassured reporters the LBF has “very good scientific advisers who advise us to make sure that we are doing what we need to ensure the quality of the air.”
He declined to respond to questions about any potential previous fires at the substation, whether the airport had sufficient backup power, and potential costs associated with the disruption.
During the Q&A, London fire brigade’s Smith gets also asked about an unconfirmed report by The Times that counter-terrorism police is part of the investigation, although the newspaper noted that this was understood to be “a precautionary measure rather than an indication of foul play.”
He says:
As you’ll appreciate, I won’t be able to comment on the investigations of the Metropolitan police.
All I can say is the Metropolitan police are investigating the cause of this fire, ably assisted by our fire investigation officers, and we will, of course, assist with that process.
Updated
'25,000 litres of cooling oil alight' in Hayes substation fire, London fire brigade says
London fire brigade is giving a press briefing just now, updating on its response to the incident.
Deputy commissioner Jonathan Smith says the service received over 200 calls to a fire, which involved a transformed “comprising of 25,000 litres of cooling oil, fully alight.”
He says this created “a major hazard due to the still live high voltage equipment and the nature of the oil fueled fire.”
“At the most recent update that I have received, approximately 10% remains alight,” he says.
He adds 67,000 households were left without power as a result of the fire, and 5,000 remain without power at the moment.
He confirms that there remains no power at Terminal 2 and Terminal 4 of Heathrow.
Smith says scientific advisers and the Metropolitan police are investigating the cause of the fire, and disruption is “expected to continue”.
Updated
Ryanair and Eurostar have decided to added extra connections to their schedules to help people stranded in London after the closure of Heathrow.
Ryanair said it would operate four extra flights between Dublin and Stansted on Friday afternoon and another four on Saturday morning.
In a statement to the Guardian, Eurostar confirmed plans to run one additional service from London to Paris (departing 3pm) and from Paris to London (departing 8pm), with 882 seats on each train.
'Highly rare and unusual' substation fire, scientists say
The substation fire which brought Heathrow to a standstill was highly rare and unusual, scientists have said.
“Fires like this are not common at all, as equipment is monitored to check its health and the equipment gets replaced once it starts showing signs of age that mean it could be dangerous (for obvious safety reasons),” said Dr Robin Preece, reader in future power systems at the University of Manchester, “Until the reports are completed by the equipment owners, it’s not possible to know the cause of the failure and the fire.”
Oil is used as an electrical insulator in these substations, he said, which means if there is a fire it becomes large and difficult to control: “The whole substation would probably need to be switched off and de-energised in order to let firefighters safely deal with the blaze. You cannot fight a fire in an electrical substation that is energised. Certainly all of the equipment adjacent to the transformer on fire would need to be de-energised.”
He said that “pretty much everyone” will be “back on supply very quickly” as there are sufficient alternate supplies on the electricity grid.
Dr Paul Cuffe, engineering professor at University College Dublin suggested Heathrow should have more resilient energy infrastructure to prevent these situations:
“One could argue that a critical piece of national infrastructure like Heathrow deserves special grid connection arrangements to secure its supply of electricity further. For instance, sometimes critical loads like this are fed from two separate substations to provide redundancy when outages happen. I am not familiar with the exact connection arrangements for Heathrow airport but neither setup would surprise me.”
“It is ultimately a political and economic question to determine the right level of capital investment into grid infrastructure to avoid the problems that outages like this cause. Redundant power supplies for an airport the size of Heathrow do not come free!”
Flights will be diverted across the UK and Europe, but because Heathrow is so massive, these airports will likely run out of capacity, said Dr Guy Gratton, associate professor of aviation and the environment, at Cranfield University.
He explained: “All airline flights must declare their destination and one or two ‘alternates’, which are airports they will go to in the event of problems at their destination. The UK has many large airports and flights have been diverting from Heathrow to airports at least as far away as Manchester. Alternates don’t have to be in the UK so for example Frankfurt or Schiphol may be used. With such a major airport closing however, there is significant risk of running out of capacity at those places.
“The absolute priority will of course be safety, with convenience to the passengers inevitably secondary to that. This is inevitably going to lead to significant disruption and frustrations.”
Updated
‘Significant disruption over coming days,’ London mayor says
London mayor Sadiq Khan said that Heathrow has warned “of significant disruption over the coming days,” as he thanked emergency services for responding to the fire at a substation.
Here is his statement in full:
Heathrow Airport is closed today due to a power outage caused by a fire at a nearby electrical substation. The fire is having a significant impact on the local area with the airport closed, other businesses affected and homes left without power.
I know this will be hugely frustrating for the many thousands expecting to travel to and from Heathrow today, the families who have had their power cut and the commuters who have had their journeys disrupted.
I’d like to thank the emergency services who have been working hard overnight to tackle the fire, and I remain in close contact with them, as I have been overnight. Thankfully, there are no reports of any injuries.
Electricity suppliers are working hard to restore power, but Heathrow Airport have said they will be closed all day and has warned of significant disruption over the coming days.
Passengers are advised not to travel to the airport under any circumstances and I urge Londoners to follow the advice of emergency services and their travel providers.
Closed Heathrow airport – in pictures
A local resident said a “bright flash of white” from the electrical substation fire in Hayes preceded an immediate power cut across the area.
Mathew Muirhead was working a night shift on Thursday when he noticed smoke rising from the electrical substation.
“We were stood outside our branch in Hayes and my colleague noticed smoke coming over the trees,” the 42-year-old told PA.
“It was 23.30 when we saw it, we were heading to West Drayton, so we went to check it out, we heard the sirens as we were headed to Bulls Bridge roundabout.
“We saw a bright flash of white and all the lights in town went out.”
“My wife rang me and told me our electric was out – I found out a few hours later that Heathrow was completely shut down.”
Tell us: have you been affected by London’s Heathrow airport closure?
If you’ve been impacted by the Heathrow airport closure as a traveller or live nearby and are experiencing a power cut, we’d like to hear from you.
UK energy secretary Ed Miliband continues his morning media round, and he told Good Morning Britain that today’s outage “makes Heathrow look quite vulnerable,” adding it was necessary to “learn lessons … about not just Heathrow, but how we protect our major infrastructure.”
He was quoted by PA Media as saying:
“What it makes me believe is we’ve got to understand why this happened, and we’ve got to work out what the lessons are for the resilience of our infrastructure.”
Ireland has accommodated half a dozen transatlantic flights to Heathrow.
Flights originally scheduled to land at Heathrow taking passengers from Toronto, Atlanta, Bridgetown, Barbados, Boston, Orlando and Newark, have landed at Shannon Airport in the west of Ireland.
Shannon Airport chief executive Mary Constance said the first flight arrived at 4.26 this morning with another arriving at 5.40.
“It is an evolving situation and the airlines are grappling with it. Those particular ones that were already en route [to Heathrow] obviously divert then subsequent to that we are making decisions to turn back or change routing,” she told RTE’s Morning Ireland.
Some 34 flights to and from Dublin Airport and Heathrow were cancelled, the airport authority has said.
Updated
Emergency services at North Hyde substation in Hayes - in pictures
'Significant impact' of Heathrow closure, British Airways say
British Airways has posted this statement on its social media:
Due to a power outage in the London Heathrow area, London Heathrow Airport is currently closed.
As a result, customers due to travel from Heathrow on Friday are advised not to travel to the airport until further notice.
This will clearly have a significant impact on our operation and our customers and we’re working as quickly as possible to update them on their travel options for the next 24 hours and beyond.
'No suggestion there is foul play,' energy secretary says
We are also getting another line from UK energy secretary Ed Miliband doing the morning media round: he has told the LBC Radio that “there is no suggestion that there is foul play.”
You may wonder whether that we know why this happened. At the moment, the focus is on restoring the power, we don’t yet have any understanding or real understanding of what caused … the fire.
He was then pressed further if he can rule out foul play, to which he responded:
I have no… There’s no suggestion that there is foul play.
Adding:
That is, I mean, the conversation I’ve had is with the National Grid, the chief executive of the National Grid, and certainly that’s what he said to me.
Hayes fire under control, investigation into causes under way, London Fire Brigade confirms
London fire brigade has now confirmed that the fire in Hayes is “now under control,” adding that the emergency services “will remain on scene throughout the day.”
“Our fire investigators will begin their investigation & we will continue working closely with our partners to minimise disruption and support the community,” they said in a social media update.
A statement on their website confirmed the fire was brought under control by 6:28 GMT, and added that “The Brigade’s fire investigators are working closely with the Metropolitan Police Service on the investigation into the cause of the fire.”
Updated
'Catastrophic' fire affected Heathrow, says UK energy secretary
UK energy secretary Ed Miliband appeared on BBC One in the last half hour, where he called the fire as “catastrophic,” and explained that it also affected “the potential backup generation” for the airport.
He said:
The [National] Grid is doing everything they can to restore power as quickly as they can to Heathrow.
Heathrow is saying that the airport will be closed today until midnight, as you know, but the grid are doing everything they can to seek to restore power.
My understanding from Grid is 100,000 homes were without power as a result of this fire overnight.
The figure they gave to me a short time ago was that that’s down now to 4,000 but obviously this is a fast moving situation.
Transport minister urges passengers not to travel to Heathrow
UK transport secretary Heidi Alexander has just commented on the Heathrow closure, urging passengers not to travel to the airport.
She said:
I’m receiving updates on the fast-moving situation at Heathrow Airport.
I’m grateful to emergency services responding to the fire, and National Grid for working to restore power to the airport and homes.
I’d urge passengers not to travel to the airport, and contact their airline.
London Stansted airport remains open
London Stansted airport is still open but has not yet received any requests for diverted flights. A spokesperson said: “London Stansted is currently operating as normal, we have capacity for a small number of diverts but as yet we haven’t received any requests.”
More images from around Hayes are coming in:
Scandinavian Airlines SAS said it has been affected by Heathrow’s closure.
“All our 12 round trips are so far cancelled to and from London Heathrow as the airport is currently closed,” it said, as reported by Reuters.
• This post was amended at 7.38am GMT. An earlier version incorrectly said the initialism SAS referred to the “Special Air Service”.
Updated
Another update from Elias Visontay, our transport and urban affairs reporter in Sydney who reports that Qantas will bus displaced passengers from Paris to London after several of its flights were forced to divert due to the closure of Heathrow airport.
On Friday, Qantas’s Singapore-London QF1 and non-stop Perth-London QF9 flights landed at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport in the early hours of the morning, local time, after the substation fire.
A Qantas spokesperson said passengers would now be transported to London on buses.
“Our Singapore-London and Perth-London services were diverted to Paris today, with buses arranged to take customers on to London,” they said.
Qantas’ QF10 flight from London returning to Perth has been cancelled for Friday, with customers to be accommodated on other flights. Friday’s QF2, from London to Singapore, will also likely be affected.
The National Grid UK has issued the following statement via social media.
“A fire at North Hyde substation in West London has damaged equipment, leading to a loss of power supply in the area. We are working at speed to restore power supplies as quickly as possible and will provide an update as soon as we can.”
The Hayes fire has forced planes to divert or be cancelled around the world.
British Airways itself had 341 flights scheduled to land at Heathrow on Friday.
“This will clearly have a significant impact on our operation and our customers, and we are working as quickly as possible to update them on their travel options for the next 24 hours and beyond,” it said.
Meanwhile, all Virgin Atlantic flights arriving and departing flights from Heathrow are cancelled until midday on 21 March, the airline said.
What we know so far
What started off as a fire at a electrical substation in Hayes, West London, has caused Heathrow, one of the world’s busiest airports, to close until midnight on Friday. The substation supplies power to the major aviation hub.
If you are just tuning in, or waking up in the UK, here is what you need to know:
In the early hours of Friday morning Heathrow airport announced that the airport would be closed until midnight on Friday due to a “significant power outage” caused by a substation fire.
The shutdown occurred just hours before the global travel hub was due to open, forcing at least 120 flights that were already in the air to divert, according to Flightradar24.
A spokesperson for the airport has told passengers not to travel to the airport “under any circumstances” and warned that “significant disruption” is expected in the coming days.
Travel experts say the Heathrow closure will have a global impact, with dozens of air carriers forced to hurriedly reconfigure their networks to move planes and crews around as a result.
Already, scores of flights are being diverted to other airports, with Qantas Airways sending its flight from Perth to Paris and a United Airlines New York flight heading to Shannon, Ireland. Some flights from the US were turning around mid-air and returning to their point of departure. A United Airlines flight from San Francisco was due to land in Washington, D.C. rather than London. British Airways and Virgin Atlantic diverted flights to nearby Gatwick.
According to Flightradar24, more than 1,000 flights will be impacted by the sudden closure of Heathrow.
On the ground, the Hayes fire is also causing significant disruption with power outages impacting more than 16,300 homes. Footage posted to social media showed huge flames and large plumes of smoke coming from the substation facility. The fire brigade said nearly 200 calls had been received in relation to the incident with crews from Hayes, Heathrow, Hillingdon, Southall and surrounding areas on the scene.
The closure of Heathrow is being felt around the world. In Singapore’s Changi airport a departure board shows an Air Portugal flight to Heathrow has been cancelled.
Heathrow closure 'catastrophic for air traffic' says aviation expert
Elias Visontay, our transport and urban affairs reporter, has spoken to an aviation expert who says that airlines around the world will now be grappling with a “logistical nightmare”.
Neil Hansford, head of the Sydney-based Strategic Aviation Solutions consultancy, said the closure of Heathrow for a day was “unheard of” for the industry.
While London’s other airports, such as Gatwick and Stansted, would traditionally take diverted flights, Heathrow’s scale means other airports in and near London do not have the capacity to absorb all of its operations.
“These airports can’t take anything close to the volume of Heathrow’s five terminals, where there’s an arrival every minute,” said Hansford.
Hansford said that even if airports such as Amsterdam’s Schiphol and Paris’ Charles de Gaulle and Orly could handle diverted arrivals, it was unclear what they would do from there to return to their flight schedules.
“If you land in Paris or Amsterdam, or even Manchester, how are you going to get your passengers and crew to London, and how are your outbound passengers and replacement crew going to get to the other city? Trains cannot do all of that moving. Every airline will be facing this problem today. Airlines base their staff in certain cities they fly to, but they may not have any staff in the cities they have to divert to.”
“Beyond positioning the crew, fuel will be a huge problem,” he added. “Airlines plan to refuel at Heathrow which has a huge supply, but other airports that accept diversions likely won’t be able to refuel all of these extra planes.”
Hansford said that even if Heathrow resumed operations by Saturday, the cascading flight disruptions would ripple through global aviation schedules for days, if not longer.
“It’s catastrophic for air traffic,” he said.
Gatwick airport accepting diverted flights
Many of the Heathrow-bound flights have diverted to London’s Gatwick, as airports around the United Kingdom and Europe brace for an influx of unexpected passengers.
A statement from a London Gatwick spokesperson said: “We are aware of the situation at Heathrow Airport today and we are supporting by accepting diverted flights as required. Flights are operating from London Gatwick as normal today.”
London Gatwick has so far accepted seven diverted flights originally scheduled to land at Heathrow, including flights from Singapore, Johannesburg, Lagos, Cape Town and Doha.
Meanwhile, other flights have diverted to Paris, among other cities.
Updated
Agence France-Presse has put together some facts about Heathrow.
The airport handles more than than 80 million passengers a year and the operator says there are around 1,300 takeoffs or landings a day.
In January, the government gave permission for Heathrow to build a third runway - which could be ready by 2035 - after years of legal wrangling brought on by complaints from local residents.
Five major airports serve the capital and towns nearby.
But capacity is stretched, especially at Heathrow whose two runways each measure almost four kilometres in length, while the airport covers a total area 12.3 square kilometres.
The airport opened in 1946 as London Airport before being renamed Heath Row, a hamlet demolished two years earlier to make way for the construction.
Situated 25km (15 miles) west of central London, the present Heathrow serves 200 destinations in more than 80 countries, with passengers having access to four terminals.
Among its main flight destinations last year were Dublin, Los Angeles, Madrid and New York.
Travel experts say the disruption will extend far beyond Heathrow
Airlines’ carefully choreographed networks depend on airplanes and crews being in specific locations at specific times. Dozens of air carriers will have to hurriedly reconfigure their networks to move planes and crews around after the Heathrow closure.
“The other question is, ‘What will airlines do to deal with the backlog of passengers?’”, said travel industry analyst Henry Harteveldt with Atmosphere Research Group. “It’s going to be a chaotic couple of days.”
For our international readers getting their bearings, here is a handy map that shows how close the fire in Hayes is to Heathrow airport.
On the ground the Hayes fire is also causing significant disruption to residents in London.
Footage posted to social media showed huge flames and large plumes of smoke coming from the substation facility.
The fire brigade said nearly 200 calls had been received in relation to the incident with crews from Hayes, Heathrow, Hillingdon, Southall and surrounding areas on the scene.
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said in a post on X there was a large-scale power outage in the area impacting more than 16,300 homes.
Emergency services were called to the scene at 11.23pm on Thursday.
The cause of the fire is yet to be determined.
United Airlines has said that seven flights have returned to their origin or to other airports on Friday, with flights to Heathrow being canceled, according to Reuters.
More than 1,000 flights will be affected
Some more details from Flightradar24, which says that more than 1,000 flights will be impacted by the sudden closure of Heathrow today.
“Today’s total closure of London-Heathrow will affect at least 1,351 flights to/from LHR,” the flight tracker said in a post on Bluesky, “That doesn’t include any flights that might be canceled or delayed due to aircraft being out of position.”
Updated
At least 120 flights diverted
It’s going to be a chaotic day for some travellers with flight tracking website Flightradar24 saying that at least 120 flights in the air bound for Heathrow will have to divert due to the airport closure.
Scores of flights are already being diverted to other airports, with Qantas Airways sending its flight from Perth to Paris and a United Airlines New York flight heading to Shannon, Ireland. Some flights from the US were turning around mid-air and returning to their point of departure.
A United Airlines flight from San Francisco was due to land in Washington, D.C. rather than London. British Airways and Virgin Atlantic diverted flights to nearby Gatwick.
Heathrow is one of the busiest two-runway airports in the world with about 1,300 combined take-offs and landings a day, according to its website.
“Heathrow is one of the major hubs of the world,” said Ian Petchenik, spokesman for FlightRadar24. “This is going to disrupt airlines’ operations around the world.”
Updated
Commenting on the blaze, a spokesperson for Heathrow airport said to expect significant disruption over the coming days.
“Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage across the airport due to a large fire at a nearby electrical substation. Whilst fire crews are responding to the incident, we do not have clarity on when power may be reliably restored.
“We expect significant disruption over the coming days and passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens.
“We will provide an update when more information on the resumption of operations is available. We know this will be disappointing for passengers and we want to reassure that we are working as hard as possible to resolve the situation.”
The London Fire Brigade has said that its crews remain at the scene of the fire in Hayes.
“Please continue to keep windows & doors closed due to smoke & avoid the area. This will be a prolonged incident, with crews remaining on scene throughout the night,” it said in a post on social media.
The fire at the west London substation has forced Heathrow, one of the world’s busiest airports to shut down until midnight on Friday. The closure is likely to cause widespread disruption to travel plans.
According to data from the OAG, Heathrow was the second-busiest international airport in 2024, after Dubai (DXB).
OAG’s data showed that Heathrow (LHR) took second place after Dubai with 48.4 million seats, while airline capacity increased by 4% compared to 2023.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the closure of Heathrow airport following a fire at an electricity substation in Hayes. The fire led to a power outage that has left the airport without electricity.
Airport operators said the travel hub would be closed until midnight on March 21. Significant disruption to travel is expected and passengers should avoid the airport.
Fire crews are responding to the accident but there is no clarity on when power may be reliably restored, a Heathrow spokesperson told Reuters in an email, and added that they expect significant disruption over the coming days.
Eurocontrol, which manages air traffic control operations across Europe, said on its operations website that no arrivals were being allowed at Heathrow due to the power outage and there were diversion plans in place for flights.
Heathrow was the world’s second-busiest international airport in 2024 behind Dubai, according to travel data firm OAG.
The London Fire Brigade said its crews was tackling the fire in Hayes in west London and had evacuated around 150 people as a precaution.
Here is the full report:
