British Airways Anticipates Major Disruptions as Heathrow Fire Investigation Continues
PUBLISHED : 22 Mar 2025 at 14:50
UPDATED : 22 Mar 2025 at 19:05
LONDON – Following a significant fire that disrupted operations, Heathrow Airport announced it is now “fully operational,” recovering from a power failure that left Europe’s busiest airport in chaos.
Flights began to resume on Friday evening after the airport was shut down, but the closure impacted tens of thousands of travelers who scrambled for hotel accommodations and rebooked flights as airlines worked to return aircraft and crew to their bases.
A spokesperson for Heathrow reassured that teams were actively supporting affected passengers, with hundreds of extra staff deployed to assist in the terminals.
“We have added flights to today’s schedule to accommodate an additional 10,000 passengers traveling through the airport,” the spokesperson stated.
The travel industry is bracing for potential financial losses in the millions and is raising concerns about the vulnerability of critical infrastructure. “This incident highlights a clear planning failure on the part of the airport,” an industry leader commented.
On Friday, Heathrow was scheduled to manage 1,351 flights, handling up to 291,000 passengers. Instead, many flights were diverted to alternate airports throughout the UK and Europe.
Around 120 airplanes were en route to Heathrow when the shutdown was announced and had to be redirected. British Airways indicated it plans to operate approximately 85 percent of its flights at the airport that day.
“Recovering operations of this scale after such a major incident is extremely complex,” stated a British Airways representative.
To alleviate congestion, the UK Department of Transport temporarily lifted restrictions on overnight flights. However, the airline’s CEO warned of substantial impacts on customers in the following days.
Meanwhile, Virgin Atlantic reported it expects to maintain a nearly full schedule with limited cancellations, emphasizing a dynamic situation that will be closely monitored.
Heathrow’s CEO issued an apology to affected travelers while defending the airport’s response, likening the power loss to that of a mid-sized city. He acknowledged the challenges of complete mitigation against such incidents.
UK Transport Secretary stated that the government needs to investigate the causes of this major outage at the electrical substation near the critical infrastructure.
Firefighters and investigators examine the electrical substation affected by the incident at Heathrow Airport on March 21.
Aviation experts noted the severity of this disruption is reminiscent of the 2010 volcanic ash cloud incident that grounded over 100,000 flights across Europe.
Some passengers diverted to airports in Europe may find themselves confined to transit lounges due to documentation issues.
In the wake of this incident, hotel prices near Heathrow surged to £500 ($645), which is about five times the usual rate, exacerbating the travel woes.
Authorities stated that initial investigations did not indicate any suspicious activity regarding the power substation incident. The London Fire Brigade is focusing on the electrical distribution equipment involved.
Approximately 150 local residents were evacuated on Friday, and the outage also affected around 100,000 homes, leaving them without power for several hours.
Heathrow and other major airports in London have faced outages recently, including a major gate failure and a malfunction in the air traffic control system earlier this year.
