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 hundreds 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 facility outage and mentioned it didn’t count on to reopen till early on Saturday.
Aviation analyst Alex Macheras instructed Al Jazeera the knock-on impact of the historic disruptions can be enormous. “It might probably take days” to get again to regular, he mentioned.
Flights had been diverted to Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Manchester.
Right here’s what we find out about what occurred and the disruption the closure has brought about.
Because of a hearth at {an electrical} substation supplying the airport, Heathrow is experiencing a major energy outage.
To keep up the protection of our passengers and colleagues, Heathrow will likely 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 hearth in {an electrical} substation serving Heathrow and surrounding areas has been blamed for reducing energy to the airport and inflicting the shutdown.
The blaze additionally brought about in depth energy outages for hundreds of residential and business 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 keep away from the premises and mentioned it was not anticipated to open once more earlier than midnight.
“Passengers are suggested to not journey to the airport and will contact their airline for additional data. We apologise for the inconvenience,” the assertion learn.
Travellers instructed Al Jazeera that they had been provided aid by some airways. One, recognized as Ellen, mentioned she was booked on a British Airways flight earlier than Friday’s chaos.
“We had been alleged 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 have now been provided a full refund by the airline so gained’t be travelling now this weekend however will attempt to rearrange for one more weekend quickly,” she mentioned.
What brought about the fireplace?
Hearth officers mentioned the reason for the fireplace continues to be unclear – investigations are ongoing. They warned this might be a “extended incident” as firefighters battled the blaze early on Friday. It was introduced underneath management at about 06:30 GMT, in accordance with United Kingdom officers.
Talking to LBC Radio on Friday, UK Vitality Secretary Ed Miliband mentioned: “There isn’t a suggestion that there’s foul play.”
The place is Heathrow and the place did the fireplace happen?
Heathrow is situated 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, primarily based 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?
A minimum of 1,357 flights have been disrupted, in accordance 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 mentioned.
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 mentioned 120 plane ready to be diverted had been nonetheless within the air on Friday morning after the disruptions.
Some passengers mentioned that they had 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 america through Heathrow to go to his companion, obtained an e 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 unique airport within the US. By the point he obtained 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?
Based on 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 every day.
Has something like this occurred earlier than?
Comparable occasions have occurred, though on a a lot smaller scale. A few of them had been additionally within the UK.
- Final July, a significant IT outage in a number of international locations brought about hundreds 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. A minimum of 2,500 flights had been cancelled and tens of millions of techniques shut down. Analysts mentioned it was the biggest 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 Site visitors Providers (Nats) planning system.
- In the summertime of 2022, after international locations totally opened following the COVID-19 pandemic, tens of hundreds of individuals flocking to holidays around the globe 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 situation a passenger cap and stopped airways from promoting flight tickets.
- In 2018, an Arctic snowstorm sweeping via the UK brought about 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 most recent 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 mentioned.
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
