Heathrow to ‘begin some flights later today’ after outage caused by fire
The airport originally announced early on Friday that it would be closed until 11.59pm because of a blaze at a nearby electrical substation.
Heathrow Airport is set to “begin some flights later today”, focusing on repatriation flights for passengers diverted to other airports in Europe, after an outage caused by a fire.
The west London airport originally announced early on Friday that it would be closed until 11.59pm because of a blaze at a nearby electrical substation.
Heathrow previously warned it expected “significant disruption” over the coming days, but in its most recent update the airport said it hopes to run a “full operation” on Saturday.
Around 200,000 passengers have been affected by the closure of what is Europe’s busiest airport.
A Heathrow spokesperson said on Friday afternoon: “We’re pleased to say we’re now safely able to begin some flights later today.
“Our first flights will be repatriation flights and relocating aircraft.
“Please do not travel to the airport unless your airline has advised you to do so.
“We will now work with the airlines on repatriating the passengers who were diverted to other airports in Europe.
“We hope to run a full operation tomorrow and will provide further information shortly.”
The spokesperson apologised for the inconvenience caused by the incident, adding: “As the busiest airport in Europe, Heathrow uses as much energy as a small city, therefore getting back to a full and safe operation takes time.”
British Airways said they have been given clearance for eight long-haul flights to depart from 7pm on Friday and that they are “urgently” informing customers booked on those flights so they can travel to the airport from 5pm.
In a statement, the airline said the “only” customers who should head to Heathrow are those booked on the following flights: BA055 to Johannesburg; BA057 to Johannesburg; BA011 to Singapore; BA259 to Riyadh; BA045 to Cape Town; BA059 to Cape Town; BA015 to Sydney via Singapore; and BA249 to Buenos Aires via Rio de Janeiro.
PA news agency reporters inside Terminal 4 earlier on Friday afternoon said lights in the main building had come back on and lifts in the multi-storey car park were operational again.
National Grid said it had found an “interim solution” to allow power to be restored to the airport.
A spokesperson said: “Working in partnership with the local network operator SSEN Distribution, the network has been reconfigured to restore all customers impacted, including the ability to resupply the parts of Heathrow Airport that are connected to North Hyde.
“This is an interim solution while we carry out further work at North Hyde to return the substation and our network to normal operation.”
London Fire Brigade said it received the first reports of the fire at 11.23pm on Thursday, forcing the closure of the airport.
Some 120 aircraft heading to the airport at that time were forced to either divert or return to their point of origin.
British Airways chief executive Sean Doyle described the closure of the airport as “unprecedented”, and one that will have a “huge impact” on the airline’s customers likely for “many days to come”.
He said: “To give you an idea of the scale of disruption we face which we’re working to minimise, today we were due to operate more than 670 flights carrying around 107,000 customers, with similar numbers planned over the weekend.”
Counter-terrorism officers from the Metropolitan Police are leading the investigation into the cause of a fire.
The force said there was “no indication of foul play” but “we retain an open mind at this time”.
Thousands of homes were left without power and more than 100 people were evacuated after a transformer within the substation caught fire.
Heathrow is Europe’s largest airport, with more than 83.9 million passengers travelling through its terminals in 2024.
It said its back-up power systems “operated as expected” but they are not designed to “allow us to run a full operation”.
This is believed to be the worst disruption at Heathrow since December 2010, when thousands of Christmas getaway passengers camped in the terminals because of widespread cancellations caused by snow.
In April of that year, air travel was grounded across Europe because of an ash cloud caused by an Icelandic volcanic eruption.
On Friday, Gatwick Airport accepted seven diverted flights from locations including Singapore, Johannesburg, Lagos, Cape Town and Doha which were originally destined for Heathrow.
Shannon Airport in Co Clare accepted six diversions from Toronto, Atlanta, Bridgetown Barbados, Boston, Orlando and Newark.
Aviation consultant John Strickland said the closure of Heathrow for an entire day is “a massive dislocation to have to recover from”.
He added: “We’re talking about several days’ worth of disruption to get the planes recovered and start using them again to move planned and disrupted passengers.”
He likened the disruption to what happened after the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, when flights were grounded across the US, saying: “It’s a contained version of 9/11.”
Rory Boland, editor of magazine Which? Travel, said affected passengers are not entitled to compensation but airlines should provide assistance such as overnight accommodation if required and re-routing bookings, including with rival carriers from alternative airports.
Speaking to broadcasters at the scene of the fire in Hayes, London Fire Brigade deputy commissioner Jonathan Smith said: “The fire involved a transformer comprising of 25,000 litres of cooling oil fully alight.
“This created a major hazard due to the still live high-voltage equipment and the nature of the oil-fuelled fire.”
A local resident, who did not want to be named, said she heard a “massive explosion”.
All the power went off, she said, adding: “It just smelled like burning.”
London Ambulance Service said there were no casualties at the scene of the fire.
Footage posted to social media showed huge flames and large plumes of smoke coming from the facility.
