Thousands stranded as fire at substation cripples Europe’s busiest airport; airlines fume, passengers scramble, and questions mount over Heathrow’s emergency preparedness.
London, March 22 (Reuters) – Flights at Heathrow Airport resumed late Friday, after a massive fire at a nearby electrical substation plunged Europe’s busiest airport into chaos, stranding tens of thousands of passengers and disrupting global flight operations.
“There is no way Heathrow should be taken out completely because of a failure in one power substation. It’s a wake-up call,” said former British military intelligence officer Philip Ingram.
The Thursday night blaze, involving 25,000 litres of burning cooling oil, knocked out Heathrow’s main power supply, leading to a complete airport shutdown on Friday. Though emergency systems functioned, they were insufficient to operate the airport’s full capacity. Flights were diverted, long-haul routes returned to origin airports, and travelers were urged to stay away.
Heathrow’s Chief Executive Thomas Woldbye apologised for the disruption and promised full operations by Saturday morning.
“We are very sorry for the inconvenience. Our teams worked tirelessly to get the airport operational again.”
Airlines affected included British Airways, JetBlue, Qantas, United, Air India, Delta, and Air Canada, among others. British Airways alone had 341 flights scheduled to land at Heathrow on Friday.
The incident has sparked industry-wide criticism, especially over the lack of redundancy in power supply for a critical global hub.
“You would think they would have significant back-up power,” said a senior airline executive.
Shares in several major airlines dipped in trading as the financial toll of the outage is expected to run into tens of millions of pounds. Hotel prices around Heathrow surged, with some rooms hitting £500 a night, five times the usual rate, as stranded passengers scrambled for options.
British Airways CEO Sean Doyle acknowledged the disruption will linger:
“It will have a huge impact on our customers over the coming days.”
Transport Minister Heidi Alexander defended Heathrow, saying the incident was outside its control and that resilience plans were activated swiftly. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office confirmed a full investigation is underway.
Though police do not suspect foul play, investigations into the fire’s cause are ongoing, with London Fire Brigade focusing on electrical systems.
The last disruption of similar magnitude in European airspace was the 2010 Icelandic volcano eruption, which grounded 100,000 flights.
As flights gradually resume, recovery will take days, especially with aircraft and crew scattered across unintended destinations.