A lack of energy compelled London Heathrow Airport, one of many world’s busiest, to shut down on Friday morning, prompting chaos and disrupting journey for tens of 1000’s of air passengers.
In a put up on social media web site X, the airport blamed a hearth at {an electrical} substation in North Hyde in Hayes, west London, for the ability outage and stated it didn’t anticipate to reopen till early on Saturday.
Aviation analyst Alex Macheras instructed Al Jazeera the knock-on impact of the historic disruptions could be enormous. “It might presumably take days” to get again to regular, he stated.
Flights had been diverted to Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Manchester.
Right here’s what we learn about what occurred and the disruption the closure has induced.
Attributable to a hearth at {an electrical} substation supplying the airport, Heathrow is experiencing a big energy outage.
To take care of the security of our passengers and colleagues, Heathrow might be closed till 23h59 on 21 March.
Passengers are suggested to not journey to the airport… pic.twitter.com/7SWNJP8ojd
— Heathrow Airport (@HeathrowAirport) March 21, 2025
What occurred at Heathrow airport?
A big fireplace in {an electrical} substation serving Heathrow and surrounding areas has been blamed for chopping energy to the airport and inflicting the shutdown.
The blaze additionally induced in depth energy outages for 1000’s of residential and industrial buildings in components of west London. Officers initially suggested residents within the space to close home windows and doorways because of the enormous plumes of smoke.
In an announcement posted on X early on Friday, Heathrow Airport suggested passengers and employees to avoid the premises and stated it was not anticipated to open once more earlier than midnight.
“Passengers are suggested to not journey to the airport and may contact their airline for additional data. We apologise for the inconvenience,” the assertion learn.
Travellers instructed Al Jazeera they’d been provided reduction by some airways. One, recognized as Ellen, stated she was booked on a British Airways flight earlier than Friday’s chaos.
“We had been purported to fly to Venice this morning from Heathrow for a day journey for my thirtieth birthday current, it was a shock booked by my cousin for the 2 of us,” Ellen instructed Al Jazeera. “We’ve got been provided a full refund by the airline so gained’t be travelling now this weekend however will attempt to rearrange for an additional weekend quickly,” she stated.
What induced the fireplace?
Hearth officers stated the reason for the fireplace continues to be unclear – investigations are ongoing. They warned this could be a “extended incident” as firefighters battled the blaze early on Friday. It was introduced underneath management at about 06:30 GMT, in keeping with United Kingdom officers.
Talking to LBC Radio on Friday, UK Vitality Secretary Ed Miliband stated: “There is no such thing as a suggestion that there’s foul play.”
The place is Heathrow and the place did the fireplace happen?
Heathrow is positioned on the outskirts of west London, within the borough of Hillingdon. The airport is the busiest in Europe and one of many busiest on the planet, based mostly on passenger site visitors.
The hearth occurred in an space near Heathrow, on the North Hyde electrical substation in Hayes, a couple of 20-minute drive from the airport.
What number of flights have been delayed or cancelled?
Not less than 1,357 flights have been disrupted, in keeping with air site visitors monitor, FlightRadar24.
Some 679 flights had been scheduled to land on the airport, whereas 678 flights had been anticipated to take off, the monitor stated.
Most flights that had been to land at Heathrow had been diverted to Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. Others had been re-routed to Frankfurt, Manchester and Dublin.
Flightradar24 stated 120 plane ready to be diverted had been nonetheless within the air on Friday morning after the disruptions.
Some passengers stated they’d been knowledgeable of cancellations and diversions hours earlier than their flight, whereas many others had been caught at Heathrow or connecting airports.
Lloyd, 34, who was planning to journey to the US by way of Heathrow to go to his accomplice, obtained an electronic mail as he was en path to Glasgow Airport on Friday morning informing him that his 6:35am flight had been rescheduled to a later time and to a special airport within the US. By the point he bought to the airport, his flight had been cancelled and he was suggested to not journey from Glasgow to Heathrow.
“Maybe as a result of we hadn’t set off to London but, we weren’t as upset as these now caught in Heathrow,” Lloyd instructed Al Jazeera.
What number of flights and passengers move via Heathrow?
In response to Heathrow’s information, some 67 million passengers move via the airport yearly. That’s near the inhabitants of the entire of the UK.
Passenger site visitors broke information in 2024 when the airport recorded greater than 83 million passengers – about 220,000 individuals a day.
The airport handles about 1,300 flights each day.
Has something like this occurred earlier than?
Related occasions have occurred, though on a a lot smaller scale. A few of them had been additionally within the UK.
- Final July, a vital IT outage in a number of nations induced 1000’s of flight cancellations and in addition affected industries starting from banks to media corporations. It occurred after cybersecurity agency CrowdStrike, which serves corporations like Microsoft, distributed a defective replace to its techniques. Not less than 2,500 flights had been cancelled and thousands and thousands of techniques shut down. Analysts stated it was the most important IT outage in historical past.
- In August 2023, flights had been cancelled for greater than 700,000 passengers when planes had been grounded throughout UK airports due to a technical glitch within the Nationwide Air Visitors Providers (Nats) planning system.
- In the summertime of 2022, after nations totally opened following the COVID-19 pandemic, tens of 1000’s of individuals flocking to holidays all over the world had been affected by an enormous airline employees scarcity, inflicting disruptions globally. A whole lot of flights had been cancelled and passengers had points discovering their baggage. Heathrow Airport was compelled to briefly difficulty a passenger cap and stopped airways from promoting flight tickets.
- In 2018, an Arctic snowstorm sweeping via the UK induced vital flight disruptions, in addition to disruptions to rail and street site visitors. The storm lasted 11 days, with shut to five,000 flights disrupted.
What’s the newest from the bottom?
Firefighters are persevering with to battle the blaze, which, whereas underneath management, is ongoing.
In the meantime, main airways like British Airways have warned their passengers to not journey to Heathrow.
“We’re working as shortly as potential to replace (travellers) on their journey choices for the following 24 hours and past,” the airline stated.
An announcement from British Airways following the disruption at London Heathrow Airport on 21 March pic.twitter.com/WGUZiBbJ9n
— British Airways (@British_Airways) March 21, 2025
