Flightmares for Hundreds After Heathrow All-Day Closure Sparks Chaos

• Heathrow Airport might be closed all day Friday after a close-by hearth prompted an influence outage.
• Heathrow is advising passengers to not journey to the airport and to contact their airways.
• Greater than 1,300 flights are anticipated to be affected.

London’s Heathrow Airport, one of many world’s busiest, was closed on Friday after a big hearth broke out close by.

Flightradar24, a reside flight-tracking platform, informed Enterprise Insider that at the least 1,351 flights could be affected.

“Resulting from a fireplace at {an electrical} substation supplying the airport, Heathrow is experiencing a major energy outage,” the airport posted to X early Friday morning native time, saying it could be closed till simply earlier than midnight.

It suggested passengers to not journey to the airport, and to contact their airline for extra data.

On Friday morning, barricades and indicators had been positioned across the airport to forestall drivers from coming into its perimeter.

The airport normally welcomes round 200,000 passengers and 1,300 flights a day.

The airport was set to see some 665 departures on Friday, the aviation analytics agency Cirium informed BI, equating to greater than airline 145,000 seats.

Terminal 5 is the busiest terminal, however on Friday morning, a BI reporter discovered that the realm round it was eerily quiet. Dozens of individuals had been ready outdoors, principally checking their telephones for journey updates.

Rhythem Chauhan was one in all them. She had been there since 5 a.m., awaiting information of her flight house to Delhi.

“It is heartbreaking,” she informed BI, saying she hadn’t been again to India in 5 years.

Luke Metcalf informed BI he was purported to fly to Thailand this morning however his flight was diverted to a different London airport, Gatwick, and would take off at 5 p.m. as a substitute.

“It’s what’s, I am a bit upset however there’s not a lot you are able to do about it,” he stated.

One other stranded passenger, Andrew Palmer, was purported to fly to San Francisco however determined to remain at a lodge close to the airport after seeing the information on TV.

“I am upset, very upset,” he informed BI. “The disheartening factor was that I had an inside flight to Las Vegas as nicely.”

Heathrow was the fourth busiest airport on this planet and the buesiest in Europe in 2024, in response to OAG, a journey information firm, behind solely Tokyo Haneda Airport, Dubai Worldwide Airport, and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Worldwide Airport.

Final 12 months, about 83.9 million individuals flew by means of Heathrow, up 6% from the earlier 12 months.

The airport’s closure led to a number of flight diversions, with some British Airways flights rerouting to London Gatwick, whereas different airways diverted to extra distant areas, in response to Cirium.

In a later assertion, the BA spokesperson stated the ability outage led to the cancellation of all short-term flights on Friday.

“Our groups are presently working onerous to evaluation our long-haul schedule in addition to the implications for our schedule for tomorrow and past,” they added.

The airline stated it was redirecting flights already on their solution to Heathrow to different UK airports.

A spokesperson for Virgin Atlantic, whose foremost UK hub is Heathrow, informed BI that the closure was having a “important influence” on its flight operations to and from the airport. Additionally they suggested prospects to not journey to Heathrow.

“We’re extremely sorry for the disruption this can trigger and are working with our groups to make sure prospects can full their journeys as rapidly as attainable,” the spokesperson stated.

Qatar Airways, in an X put up, stated that the closure had affected 5 flights from London to Doha and 4 flights from Doha to London.

“Passengers impacted on account of above might be taken care of by our buyer care and airport groups,” it added.

The hearth occurred at an electrical energy substation in Hayes in West London, about 1.5 miles from the airport. The reason for the fireplace isn’t but identified.

The London Fireplace Brigade stated in a put up on X that 10 hearth engines and about 70 firefighters had been known as to the scene. Pictures confirmed massive flames and plumes of thick black smoke.

“This might be a chronic incident, with crews remaining on scene all through the evening,” it stated on its web site.

In a press briefing late Friday morning, the fireplace brigade stated the fireplace was not totally extinguished however was beneath management, and that 5,000 houses had been nonetheless with out energy.

Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, stated in an announcement that electrical energy suppliers had been working onerous to revive energy.

London has a number of different worldwide airports together with Gatwick, town’s second-busiest airport, and Stansted, identified for price range flights and flights to Europe.

London’s Metropolitan Police stated its counter-terrorism command would lead the fireplace investigation, given “the influence this incident has had on important nationwide infrastructure.”

“That is as a result of specialist sources and capabilities inside that command that may help in progressing this investigation at tempo to minimise disruption and establish the trigger,” the pressure added in an announcement.

Do you might have a narrative to share about how your plans are affected by Heathrow’s shutdown? Contact reporter Pete Syme at psyme@businessinsider.com.