Fire near London's Heathrow airport means cancelled flights for Canadians

Yahoo

21-03-2025

A fire that knocked out power to London's Heathrow airport has had knock-on effects around the world, including for travellers in Canada.
Heathrow, the fifth-busiest airport in the world and the busiest in Europe, said it would be closed until midnight local time on Friday night after a large fire broke out in an electricity substation nearby.
In a statement to the National Post, Air Canada said it cancelled seven flights to London on Thursday.
'Six were in the air and had to return while a seventh was cancelled before departing,' a spokesperson said. 'This included three from Toronto, and one each from Montreal, Calgary and our Delhi-London-Calgary flight. Including return flights by those aircraft from London, the total cancelled is 16.'
They added: 'For today, March 21, we have cancelled our morning flight from Halifax to London. We are waiting for more information from Heathrow to determine when the airport will reopen and how many flights we will be permitted to operate this evening. For this evening, we have six flights scheduled, three from Toronto, and one each from Calgary, Montreal and Vancouver.'
Air Canada currently has one aircraft on the ground in London, a Boeing 737 used for its Halifax-London service.
'We have been able to reroute some customers to other European gateways, but our available space for doing so is limited,' the spokesperson said. 'As well, we have put in place a policy for customers travelling to London to change their travel plans. Customers are advised to check the status of their flights at www.aircanada.com.'
The airline is waiting for more information from Heathrow. 'Once we are told by Heathrow how many flights we will be permitted to operate we will finalize tonight's schedule and notify customers and, as the situation normalizes, we will look to add extra capacity if needed to move delayed customers.'
They added: 'We regret the impact this event is having on our customers, but we are committed to moving them as soon as we are permitted to do so.'
A spokesperson from Toronto's Pearson airport confirmed that all arriving flights from Heathrow had been cancelled, and advised passengers to check the status of their flight with their airline or through the airport.
Andre Nadeau, Airport Duty Manager for the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, told CP24 on Friday morning that 'this is going to be a multi-day recovery for (Heathrow). So continue to check your flight status on that.'
Air Canada plans if Canadian travel to US drops
Air Canada told to pay $18K to Brink's for $24M theft
Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our newsletters here.