Luton airport has reopened after being shut down overnight as a huge fire ripped through a multistorey car park near its terminal, disrupting travel for thousands of passengers.
The first departing scheduled flight after the reopening, a Ryanair service to Cork, left shortly before 3.30pm on Wednesday.
At least 125 flights were cancelled and others severely delayed, and some disruption is likely to continue into Thursday.
Authorities said the blaze appeared to have been accidental and began in a parked car, believed to be a diesel vehicle. The fire caused part of the recently built development at London’s fifth biggest airport to collapse.
It started at about 9pm on Tuesday and was extinguished by 9.30am on Wednesday, but the airport advised people not to travel there and all flights were suspended until 3pm.
It said on Wednesday afternoon that surrounding main roads had reopened, but that delays were expected on the airport approach, with replacement buses for the new Dart shuttle from the railway station, which exits near the scene of the fire.
“We’ve got no intelligence to suggest it’s anything other than an accidental fire that started in one of the vehicles,” said the local fire chief, Andrew Hopkinson.
Footage posted on social media showed flames and smoke rising from the top floor of the car park, along with the sounds of loud explosions and car alarms.
Bedfordshire fire and rescue service said there had been a “significant structural collapse” and and that half of the car park had been “fully involved in the fire”.
The blaze began in the airport’s newest car park, the closest to departures, part of a £160m redevelopment of the main terminal and surrounding buildings that opened in December 2018.
Hopkinson said there were no sprinklers in the car park and firefighters were advising the airport to ensure they were fitted. “Sprinklers may have made a positive impact on this incident,” he said.
Efforts are still ongoing to extinguish a serious fire at Luton Airport. We are continuing to protect surrounding airport infrastructure, vehicles and the Luton DART. For anyone whose travel plans may be affected, please refer to the advice being provided by London Luton Airport. pic.twitter.com/tNFo4hvRdX
— Beds Fire and Rescue (@BedsFire) October 11, 2023
The fire service declared a major incident at 9.38pm on Tuesday. At 3.57am, firefighters were still trying to put out the blaze and prevent it from spreading to adjacent buildings and vehicles on the airport runway.
At the peak of the fire, Bedfordshire fire and rescue service had 15 fire engines, three specialist aerial appliances and more than 100 firefighters at the scene. It is believed that as many as 1,200 vehicles may have been in the car park. A temporary ramp was being constructed to enable undamaged vehicles to be removed.
Update at 07:10 pic.twitter.com/WXCrmUcLih
— London Luton Airport (@LDNLutonAirport) October 11, 2023
The East of England ambulance service said one member of the public and six firefighters had been affected by smoke inhalation.
Molly Bullard posted video footage of the fire on X, formerly Twitter, and wrote: “Scary scenes at Luton airport as the multi story [sic] short stay car park is exploding in flames.”
Russell Taylor flew into the airport from Edinburgh. He told PA Media: “There were a couple of fire engines with a car ablaze on the upper floor of the car park at just after 9pm. A few minutes later most of the upper floor was alight, car alarms were going off with loud explosions from cars going up in flames. The speed in which the fire took hold was incredible.”
EasyJet, which is headquartered at Luton, said it had cancelled 70 flights on Wednesday, and 15 arrivals had to divert to other airports on Tuesday night. It advised all passengers to check the status of their flights.
It said: “We are doing all possible to minimise the impact on our customers, providing those on cancelled flights with options to rebook or receive a refund, as well as providing hotel accommodation and meals where required.”
The airline said it planned to operate a full schedule on Thursday.
