Former transport secretary Ruth Kelly, who is an independent member of Heathrow’s board, will undertake a review of the airport’s crisis management plans and its response to a power outage caused by a substation fire, Heathrow chairman Lord Paul Deighton said.
Deighton said: “Closing the airport yesterday had significant impacts for our passengers, our customers, our colleagues and the country.
“Heathrow regrets the disruption this caused. We hope that all those affected understand that the decision was made in order to prioritise the safety of our passengers and colleagues.
“We are committed to finding any potential learnings from this unprecedented incident.
“To fully understand what happened, I have asked Ruth Kelly, former secretary of state for transport and an independent member of Heathrow’s Board, to undertake a review.
“The Kelly Review will analyse all of the relevant material concerning the robustness and execution of Heathrow’s crisis management plans, the airport’s response during the incident and how the airport recovered the operation with the objective of identifying any improvements that could be made to our future resilience.”
Updated
A summary of today's developments
Energy secretary Ed Miliband has ordered the National Energy System Operator to “urgently investigate” the power outage caused by a substation fire that shut Heathrow Airport on Friday. He is working with Ofgem and using powers under the Energy Act to formally launch the grid operator’s investigation.
The chief executive of Heathrow, Thomas Woldbye, defended the running of the airport after a fire at an electrical substation stopped about 1,300 planes and disrupted the journeys of hundreds of thousands of global passengers. It came after Willie Walsh, the International Air Transport Association’s director general, criticised Heathrow for the disruption. “This is yet another case of Heathrow letting down both travellers and airlines,” Walsh said
Heathrow airport said on Saturday morning that flights had resumed after yesterday’s power outage and that the airport was now “fully operational”. It added that hundreds of additional staff had been drafted in to help clear the backlog of flights. The airport also confirmed that it had added 50 slots to Saturday’s schedule to facilitate an extra 10,000 passengers travelling through the airport.
The closure of Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, due to a fire at a nearby electrical substation dominated the front pages of British newspapers on Saturday. Friday’s closure is believed to be the worst disruption at Heathrow since December 2010.
The National Grid has apologised for the disruption caused by a power outage that caused Heathrow airport to close on Friday. In a statement published on X today, the National Grid said it was “deeply sorry” and would be working closely with the government, Heathrow and the police to “understand the cause of the incident”.
Several airlines announced they would restart scheduled flights both to and from Heathrow airport, including British Airways (BA), Air Canada, United Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Malaysia Airlines and Air India. BA said that it expected to operate about 85% of its scheduled flights on Saturday.
Transport secretary Heidi Alexander said it was “good to see Heathrow airport return to full operations this morning”, in a post on social media. She added that the Department for Transport had lifted restrictions on night flights to ease the backlog and rail tickets could be used flexibly to help passengers.
Counter-terrorism officers from the Metropolitan police have been leading the investigation into the cause of the Hayes fire, which did not result in any casualties at the scene. “After initial assessment, we are not treating this incident as suspicious, although inquiries do remain ongoing,” Cmdr Simon Messinger said.
David Omand, the former head of the Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ), said he was surprised at the length of Heathrow airport’s closure. Speaking to the BBC, Omand described it as a “national embarrassment”.
Yesterday, Downing Street said there were “questions to answer” after a fire at an electrical substation closed down the airport, stopping more than 1,350 flights and disrupting the journeys of hundreds of thousands of passengers.
The government has launched an urgent investigation into the power shutdown that crippled Heathrow airport, with experts warning it was a “wake-up call” about vulnerabilities in the nation’s critical infrastructure.
The energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has commissioned the independent National Energy System Operator (Neso) to investigate the incident and assess the UK’s energy resilience. The regulator Ofgem warned it would “not hesitate” to take action if there were any breaches of standards or licence obligations.
Heathrow was shut down on Friday after a blaze at a high-voltage substation in Hayes, west London, with more than 1,350 flights disrupted and an estimated 300,000 passengers facing travel chaos. Heathrow airport said it was “fully operational” on Saturday, although disruption to flights was expected to continue for a few days.
Counter-terrorism officers from the Metropolitan police have been leading the investigation into the cause of the fire. Police say that after an initial assessment, they are not treating the incident as suspicious.
Lloyd McBratney was flying from Kuwait to Heathrow with his girlfriend when their flight U-turned around two hours after taking off on Friday.
The captain then informed them of the Heathrow fire and that they would be returning to Kuwait.
McBratney told Sky News he was asleep at the time of the announcement and woke up to “quite a bit of confusion” and “panic”.
“Obviously no one had any signal, any Wi-Fi, so no one knew what was happening on the ground at Heathrow.”
Describing the scene at Heathrow when he returned, he said it was “slightly more panicky than usual,” adding baggage claim was “a bit of carnage” because so many flights had been diverted.
“We were lucky that we went back to Kuwait and then did the full journey into Heathrow, so our cargo stayed on the plane.
“There was quite a bit of panic, a bit of frustration. But I think overall a lot of people were just happy to be on the ground in Heathrow.”
The National Energy System Operator (NESO), which will investigate the power outage, said it “welcomes the government’s commission”.
Fintan Slye, NESO’s chief executive, said in a statement: “We will now work with all relevant stakeholders to understand the lessons that can be learned to improve future resilience of Great Britain’s energy system.”
The Department Energy Security and Net Zero said it expects NESO to report back with its initial findings within six weeks.
Heathrow’s CEO has given his reaction to the government commissioning an independent investigation into the substation fire which caused huge disruption yesterday.
Thomas Woldbye said the airport welcomed the NESO’s investigation, adding: “We will support every effort to understand the causes and impacts of yesterday’s off-airport incident and we are committed to working closely with all stakeholders to ensure a thorough investigation to help strengthen the airport’s future resilience.”
Ed Miliband, has ordered the National Energy System Operator to “urgently investigate” the outage.
Earlier, Woldbye defended the running of the airport.
It comes after Willie Walsh, the International Air Transport Association’s director general, criticised Heathrow for the disruption, while the energy secretary.
We reported earlier that energy secretary Ed Miliband has ordered the National Energy System Operator to “urgently investigate” the power outage caused by a substation fire that shut Heathrow Airport on Friday.
He is working with Ofgem and using powers under the Energy Act to formally launch the grid operator’s investigation.
Akshay Kaul, director general for infrastructure at Ofgem, said: “We saw yesterday the huge disruption that comes when energy supply is disrupted, and it’s important we now understand how that happened.
“Households and businesses should be able to have confidence in the resilience of critical national infrastructure, and Ofgem will work with the government and others to ensure Neso’s review goes as far as possible to ensuring steps are put in place to avoid any repeat of an incident of this scale in the future.
“To the extent the review finds any breaches of standards or licence obligations, we will not hesitate to take action.”
Updated
Queues at Heathrow on Saturday were not noticeably longer than usual, with additional staff on duty to guide passengers through the airport.
A passenger at Heathrow said purchasing their flights in one booking had helped them avoid the worst of the disruption when a nearby fire closed the airport on Friday.
Rob Walford, 74, told PA: “We were in Nice with friends and we were due to fly into Heathrow yesterday.
“We were going to stay the night and then catch our flight to San Diego, so obviously, we didn’t do that.
“The wisest thing we did, though, while in Nice was take the tram to the airport and then rebook us first thing this morning. If we hadn’t done that, we wouldn’t be here.
“The British Airways desk sorted it out: we’ve got a flight this morning that wasn’t going to be cancelled, so now we’re good.”
A woman accompanying a school trip from the US said flight cancellations at Heathrow on Saturday had resulted in a “stressful” end to their travels.
Speaking at the airport, Christine Eckles, 50, told the PA news agency: “It was a delay at first, a three-hour delay, and then we found out our flight to Chicago was cancelled.
“We’re having to work on how to get a new flight out with British Airways.”
Ms Eckles, who is accompanying students from Iowa, added: “It’s been stressful.
“We’re at the end of our trip and we have had a wonderful time in London and Paris, and everybody’s ready to go home and back to their spring break.”
Chirping birds and unbroken skies come as standard in many English villages, though not in Harmondsworth – which lies under Heathrow’s flight path. But Friday was different.
“It’s been peace and tranquillity,” said 72-year-old Andrew Melville, who has lived in the village, which straddles the border of London and Berkshire, for 49 years. “Especially not being woken up by transatlantic flights in the early morning.”
The travel hub, which is one of the busiest in the world, came to a standstill on Friday morning after a fire at an electrical substation in Hayes, west London. More than 1,300 flights have been grounded and counter-terrorism police have launched an investigation into the cause of the blaze.
The airport’s closure has caused travel misery for many but those living nearby have been given rare respite from the roaring planes that shatter the illusion of village life.
“Usually we get an early morning call and a late-night goodnight,” said Melville, describing the unsociable times that massive, long-haul jets land and take off. “Days like today are blissful because we can go about our normal lives.”
The last time people in the village saw the skies this clear was during the Covid lockdowns. “They were awful but this village was great back then. People running around, cycling on bikes and listening to the birds. You could even hear yourself think,” said Melville.
Energy secretary orders investigation into Heathrow disruption
Energy secretary Ed Miliband has ordered an investigation into the Heathrow closure.
In a statement posted online, he said:
The loss of power to the Heathrow area has caused major disruption to thousands of people and many businesses. We are determined to properly understand what happened and what lessons need to be learned.
That is why working with Ofgem, I have today commissioned the NESO to carry out an investigation into this specific incident and to understand any wider lessons to be learned on energy resilience for critical national infrastructure, both now and in the future.
Summary of the day
It has just gone 3.30pm in London. Here is a summary of the latest developments covered today:
The chief executive of Heathrow, Thomas Woldbye, defended the running of the airport after a fire at an electrical substation stopped about 1,300 planes and disrupted the journeys of hundreds of thousands of global passengers. It came after Willie Walsh, the International Air Transport Association’s director general, criticised Heathrow for the disruption. “This is yet another case of Heathrow letting down both travellers and airlines,” Walsh said
Heathrow airport said on Saturday morning that flights had resumed after yesterday’s power outage and that the airport was now “fully operational”. It added that hundreds of additional staff had been drafted in to help clear the backlog of flights. The airport also confirmed that it had added 50 slots to Saturday’s schedule to facilitate an extra 10,000 passengers travelling through the airport.
The closure of Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, due to a fire at a nearby electrical substation dominated the front pages of British newspapers on Saturday. Friday’s closure is believed to be the worst disruption at Heathrow since December 2010.
The National Grid has apologised for the disruption caused by a power outage that caused Heathrow airport to close on Friday. In a statement published on X today, the National Grid said it was “deeply sorry” and would be working closely with the government, Heathrow and the police to “understand the cause of the incident”.
Several airlines announced they would restart scheduled flights both to and from Heathrow airport, including British Airways (BA), Air Canada, United Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Malaysia Airlines and Air India. BA said that it expected to operate about 85% of its scheduled flights on Saturday.
Transport secretary Heidi Alexander said it was “good to see Heathrow airport return to full operations this morning”, in a post on social media. She added that the Department for Transport had lifted restrictions on night flights to ease the backlog and rail tickets could be used flexibly to help passengers.
Counter-terrorism officers from the Metropolitan police have been leading the investigation into the cause of the Hayes fire, which did not result in any casualties at the scene. “After initial assessment, we are not treating this incident as suspicious, although inquiries do remain ongoing,” Cmdr Simon Messinger said.
David Omand, the former head of the Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ), said he was surprised at the length of Heathrow airport’s closure. Speaking to the BBC, Omand described it as a “national embarrassment”.
Yesterday, Downing Street said there were “questions to answer” after a fire at an electrical substation closed down the airport, stopping more than 1,350 flights and disrupting the journeys of hundreds of thousands of passengers.
Updated
As well as disruption at Heathrow airport, passengers face a travel diversion if travelling to the airport via the M25. This also affects those driving to other locations, such as Gatwick airport, via the M25 as junctions 10 and 11 in both directions will be closed on 21-24 March.
Work starts at 9pm on 21 March and will be completed by 6am on 24 March.
A notice on the British Airways website advised allowing extra time and planning ahead for journeys to the airports.
Updated
Virgin Atlantic said on Saturday that it planned to run a “near full schedule with limited cancellations”, a day after Heathrow airport was closed due to an “unprecedented” loss of power caused by a substation fire.
In a statement posted on X, Virgin Atlantic wrote:
Heathrow airport has fully reopened and we plan to run a near full schedule with limited cancellations today.
The impact on today’s flying programme is the result of yesterday’s airport closure following a fire at an electrical substation nearby, which has included the repositioning of aircraft and crews.
We’re incredibly sorry for any disruption to our customer’s journeys and we are working to ensure customers affected can complete their journeys as quickly as possible.”
National Grid apologises for 'disruption caused' by power outage
The National Grid has apologised for the disruption caused by a power outage that caused Heathrow airport to close on Friday.
In a statement published on X today, the National Grid said:
Power supplies have been restored to all customers connected to our North Hyde substation, including Heathrow, allowing operations to resume at the airport.
We are now implementing measures to help further improve the resilience levels of our network.
We are deeply sorry for the disruption caused and are continuing to work closely with the government, Heathrow and the police to understand the cause of the incident.”
Malaysia Airlines said on Saturday that it had resumed flights to and from Heathrow airport.
In an update on X, the airline said that flights MH4 (Kuala Lumpur to London Heathrow) and MH1 (London Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur) were operating as usual, but advised passengers to update their contact details in the ‘my booking’ section on the Malaysia Airlines website or app to “receive important updates promptly”.
An eleven-year-old girl was denied the chance to make a long-planned visit to Platform 9 3/4 of King’s Cross station due to Heathrow disruption.
When Aleksandra Sobczak asked his nice Agata which place she would like to visit the most, she answered without hesitation: “London!”
“We are Polish and live in Warsaw. I’m a huge fan of the British Isles and of your extraordinary late monarch, and know London well for a foreigner, having been many times for work and pleasure,” Sobczak told the Guardian.
Sobczak went ahead and planned a surprise trip for Agata:
The trip was to be a surprise for Agata’s eleventh birthday. A London highlights bus trip for kids, Platform 9 3/4 obviously, Oxford Street window shopping, the Tower of London, Greenwich – the works.”
After months of planning Sobczak showed her niece the airline ticket last Tuesday on her birthday.
Clearing up my professional stuff yesterday morning for the London weekend ahead, I got the text message and the email. The airline was respectfully letting me know that, regrettably, the flight had been cancelled. Of all the days in the year? On a surprise my family and I had been planning for Agata for months? Then Agata’s dad texted me: ‘there’s been a fire at Heathrow’.”
Sobczak visited her niece on Friday evening with a conciliatory box of strawberry tarts and a hug.
We talked about Harry Potter and his Leicester Square statue. And the River Thames. We will see them in May.”
Updated
Here are some pictures of passengers on the move again at Heathrow airport:
Updated
Here are some more images related to the air travel disruptions:
Updated
The substation fire was a “catastrophic failure” Robin Preece, a senior lecturer in future power systems at the University of Manchester, tells Sky News.
“Although we do sometimes see transformers or bits of electrical equipment fail, actually having them fail so catastrophically that they cause a large fire – which then leads the whole substation to be shut down – that’s what really tips this from being a more normal event into something that’s very, very unlikely,” he said
Earlier, transport secretary Heidi Alexander said the Department for Transport was “taking action to help people get where they need to be”, highlighting the news that the department had lifted restrictions on night flights to ease the backlog and rail tickets could be used flexibly to help passengers.
Updated
Good afternoon Guardian readers.
If you have been affected by the disruption at Heathrow airport in any way and would like to share your stories, please get in touch.
My email address is:
Danny.lavelle.freelancer@theguardian.com
Updated
Air India confirmed on Saturday that its flights to and from Heathrow airport had recommenced.
In a post on X, the airline wrote:
Our operations to and from London Heathrow (LHR) have recommenced after the disruption at the airport yesterday due to a power outage.
Today’s flight AI111 was on schedule and other flights, to and from London, are expected to operate as per schedule.
AI161 of 21 March, which was diverted to Frankfurt, is expected to leave Frankfurt at 14:05 pm local time.”
Virgin Atlantic issued a statement on Saturday apologising for the disruption at Heathrow airport and said it planned to run a “near full schedule with limited cancellations today”.
The airline said Heathrow’s closure on Friday had left an “impact on today’s flying programme”, including the repositioning of aircraft and crews.
Here is the Guardian’s news piece on the chief executive of Heathrow defending the running of the airport after a fire at an electrical substation:
Here are some images from Heathrow airport this morning, via the newswires:
Updated
Reporters for the PA news agency have been speaking to passengers at Heathrow airport this morning. Here are some of the reactions to the travel disruption:
Farah Rafeeq, 24, was due to travel with Singapore Airlines on Friday from Heathrow with her 32-year-old friend Niken Wulan, who is pregnant, to another friend’s wedding in Cambodia on Sunday. The mass cancellation of flights means they will now miss part of the ceremony.
They have found an alternative flight from Gatwick airport with Turkish Airlines and Bangkok Airways that will get them to Cambodia for Sunday afternoon.
Rafeeq, who works in climate project management, told the PA news agency from Gatwick airport on Saturday:
The last few hours have been nightmarish because it is one of our closest friends’ wedding and we have to travel for at least 20 hours to get there.
We had to pay double the amount, between £600 and £700, for the new flight, and we had planned this trip for months and had hotels booked and are flying to south-east Asia after the wedding.
We are missing the morning ceremony but at least we can make it for the reception.”
Meanwhile, an American tourist has praised his airline’s and Heathrow’s “fantastic” response to a fire that closed the transport hub on Friday.
Speaking at Heathrow, Tim Kolb, who travelled to the UK on holiday from Dallas, Texas, told the PA news agency:
I was just getting ready to board the plane on Thursday night, and the news actually started coming across on our phones quicker than on the [airport] desk.
But American Airlines did a fabulous job – we didn’t have to wait in the line or anything. They got us our accommodation reservation.”
Kolb, 55, added:
I thought I was going to be there [Dallas] delayed two days, but I went over yesterday.
It was organised well. In fact, they had several planes leaving within an hour of each other to Heathrow. The way everybody responded and fell into action, it was fantastic.”
Transport secretary Heidi Alexander said it was “good to see Heathrow airport return to full operations this morning”, in a post on social media.
Alexander wrote on X:
Good to see Heathrow airport return to full operations this morning. Passengers should continue to check with their airline before travelling.
Passengers should continue to check with their airline before travelling.”
She added that the Department for Transport was “taking action to help people get where they need to be”, highlighting the news that the department had lifted restrictions on night flights to ease the backlog and rail tickets could be used flexibly to help passengers.
Updated
Heathrow airport has confirmed that it had added 50 slots to Saturday’s schedule to facilitate an extra 10,000 passengers travelling through the airport.
A statement from Heathrow says flights have officially resumed and advised passengers to contact their airlines if they are due to fly on Saturday.
Updated
To provide some context, Heathrow is Europe’s largest airport, with more than 83.9 million passengers travelling through its terminals in 2024.
Friday’s closure is believed to be the worst disruption at Heathrow since December 2010, when thousands of Christmas getaway passengers camped in the terminals because of widespread cancellations caused by snow, reports the PA news agency.
In April of that year, air travel was grounded across Europe because of an ash cloud caused by an Icelandic volcanic eruption.
On Friday, other airports accepted diverted flights originally destined for Heathrow, including London’s Gatwick airport and Shannon airport in County Clare.
All terminals and car parks at Heathrow are open, the airport has confirmed.
In a post on X, Heathrow airport said:
Flights have resumed at Heathrow, and we are open and fully operational. All terminals and all car parks are open across Heathrow.”
Counter-terrorism officers from the Metropolitan police have been leading the investigation into the cause of the Hayes fire, which did not result in any casualties at the scene.
“After initial assessment, we are not treating this incident as suspicious, although inquiries do remain ongoing,” Cmdr Simon Messinger said, according to the PA news agency.
Chirping birds and unbroken skies come as standard in many English villages, though not in Harmondsworth – which lies under Heathrow’s flight path. But Friday was different.
“It’s been peace and tranquillity,” said 72-year-old Andrew Melville, who has lived in the village, which straddles the border of London and Berkshire, for 49 years. “Especially not being woken up by transatlantic flights in the early morning.”
The travel hub, which is one of the busiest in the world, came to a standstill on Friday morning after a fire at an electrical substation in Hayes, west London. More than 1,300 flights have been grounded and counter-terrorism police have launched an investigation into the cause of the blaze.
The airport’s closure has caused travel misery for many but those living nearby have been given rare respite from the roaring planes that shatter the illusion of village life.
“Usually we get an early morning call and a late-night goodnight,” said Melville, describing the unsociable times that massive, long-haul jets land and take off. “Days like today are blissful because we can go about our normal lives.”
The last time people in the village saw the skies this clear was during the Covid lockdowns. “They were awful but this village was great back then. People running around, cycling on bikes and listening to the birds. You could even hear yourself think,” said Melville.
David Page, 71, who lives in the nearby village of Longford, has also noticed a change. “It has gotten rid of all the hire cars that park at the top of the village,” he said. While he is enjoying the peace and quiet, Page said people who choose to live in the village should expect some noise. “You don’t move to Longford for peace. You move here because you’re working just over there,” he said, pointing towards the airport.
The closure of Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, due to a fire at a nearby electrical substation dominates the front pages of British newspapers on Saturday, with more than 1,350 flights cancelled and journeys disrupted for hundreds of thousands of passengers.
The Guardian splashes with “Chaos and anger as fire shuts Heathrow airport”, above a picture of anxious travellers, and an article that focuses on Downing Street’s reaction: that there are “questions to answer” as to how a power failure could cause such disruption.
The Times leans into the blame narrative with “Heathrow chaos puts bosses in firing line”, elaborating in its subheading with “Holidays ruined” and “Travellers stranded abroad”.
The Daily Telegraph calls it the “Colossal failure of Heathrow blackout” next to a photo of the secretary of state for energy, Ed Miliband, who, as the subheading explains, “admits site looks ‘vulnerable’”.
You can find all the front pages and analysis here:
Several airlines announced they would restart scheduled flights both to and from Heathrow airport, including British Airways (BA), Air Canada and United Airlines.
A BA flight to Riyadh, in Saudi Arabia, took off just before 9pm after a slight delay to its expected departure time, according to the PA news agency.
Restrictions on overnight flights have also been temporarily lifted to help ease congestion, the Department for Transport said.
Willie Walsh, the International Air Transport Association’s director general, criticised Heathrow airport in as a result of the disruption, reports the PA news agency.
“This is yet another case of Heathrow letting down both travellers and airlines,” he said. Walsh added:
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.”
Heathrow chief executive defends response as he apologises to stranded passengers
Flights have resumed at Heathrow airport as its chief executive apologised to stranded passengers and defended the response to an “unprecedented” loss of power caused by a substation fire.
According to the PA news agency, Heathrow’s chief executive, Thomas Woldbye, described the blaze which knocked out an electricity substation in Hayes late on Thursday evening as “as big as it gets for our airport” and that “we cannot guard ourselves 100%”.
The Metropolitan police said they are not treating the incident as suspicious while the London fire brigade (LFB) announced its investigation will now focus on the electrical distribution equipment.
Of the power outage, Woldbye said that 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 electricity enough to power what is described as a “mid-sized city”.
About 200,000 passengers have been affected by the closure of what is Europe’s busiest airport, reports the PA news agency.
Woldbye said the airport expects to return to “100% operation” on Saturday but British Airways said it is expecting about 85% of its Saturday Heathrow schedule to run (see 08.06am GMT).
He told reporters:
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:
This is unprecedented. It’s never happened before and that’s why I’m saying it has been a major incident.”
The CEO said Heathrow will “look at anything we can learn from this” and encouraged the prime minister to ask him any questions he has.
British Airways (BA) said it expects to operate about 85% of its scheduled flights at Heathrow airport on Saturday, as it recovers from a lengthy closure of the travel hub after a substation fire, reports the PA news agency.
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 spokesperson 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.
Our focus is on getting our customers and colleagues to where they need to be as quickly and as safely possible. We will be contacting all affected customers to advise them of their options, and we thank them for bearing with (us as we) work through these solutions.”
Despite criticism from some quarters, the UK transport secretary has defended the airport over the length of its closure, saying the “unprecedented situation” had been “totally outside of Heathrow’s control”.
Heidi Alexander said:
They have stood up their resilience plan swiftly, and they’ve collaborated closely with our emergency responders and the airline operators. They do have backup energy supplies, they have generators, diesel generators.
None of that failed on this occasion because that backup supply is designed to protect the critical key systems within the airport and not to provide power to the whole airport.
I would still advise anyone who has got a flight tomorrow [Saturday] to check in with their airline before travelling to the airport. But given the scale and magnitude of this incident, the response has been swift, although I do appreciate there will have been immense distress and disruption to a very large number of people.
British Airways: 'huge impact' on passengers expected for days
British Airways, which operates around half of all Heathrow flights, resumed long-haul services on Friday evening after power was restored.
The chief executive, Sean Doyle, said BA had “been forced to effectively ground our flying operation”, cancelling every short-haul and the majority of long-haul flights scheduled for Friday.
“Unfortunately, it will have a huge impact on all of our customers flying with us over the coming days,” he said.
Heathrow 'open and fully operational'
Heathrow airport says “flights have resumed at Heathrow after yesterday’s power outage” and the airport is now “fully operational”.
It added that hundreds of additional staff have been drafted in to help clear the backlog of flights.
A statement read:
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.
Updated
Former GCHQ chief 'surprised' at length of closure
David Omand, the former head of the Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ), said he was surprised at the length of the airport’s closure.
He told the BBC:
Given the importance of Heathrow I am surprised that the whole airport had to be shut for a day.
I mean, you could understand disruption whilst you change over to alternate systems and so on, but such a complete failure over the period of a day – and who knows the disruption may last longer – is a national embarrassment. It shouldn’t have happened.
London residents will be disturbed by more aircraft noise at night than normally permitted in the coming days after the Department for Transport lifted restrictions on night flights to ease the backlog.
Yesterday, Downing Street said there were “questions to answer” after a fire at an electrical substation closed down the airport, stopping more than 1,350 flights and disrupting the journeys of hundreds of thousands of passengers.
Counter-terrorism police were 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 did not believe the fire was the result of any criminal activity or a hostile state act and was more likely to be accidental. Police confirmed on Friday evening that the fire was not thought to be suspicious.
Flights begin landing at Heathrow after day of travel chaos
Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of the ongoing travel chaos caused by the closure of Heathrow airport in London yesterday.
On Saturday morning, flights began landing as the airport aimed to return to normal operation after shutting down over a loss of power.
Restrictions on overnight flights were temporarily lifted to help ease congestion, the Department of Transport said, and the airport said passengers should come to Heathrow on Saturday as they normally would.
British Airways, which has a major presence at Heathrow, said it expected 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 a Saturday but it is understood cancellations will be made, where possible, to high-frequency routes.
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 on Saturday.
We’ll bring you the latest updates throughout the day as we get them.
