Heathrow Airport 'fully operational' after fire shutdown
The electricity substation blaze knocked out power at the London airport, closing it for most of Friday before some flights began to arrive and take off later in the evening.
The shutdown affected thousands of passengers around the world and raised serious questions about the reliability of one of the UK's most critical pieces of infrastructure.
"We can confirm that Heathrow is open and fully operational today," an airport spokesperson said on Saturday morning.
"Teams across the airport continue to do everything they can to support passengers impacted by yesterday's outage at an off-airport power substation."
About 1,350 flights were affected by Friday's closure, according to the Flightradar24 tracking website. Around 120 Heathrow-bound planes were in the air when the closure was announced and had to be diverted.
Delays and cancellations were likely throughout Saturday as airlines scrambled to clear a backlog of flights and reposition aircraft and crews.
"We have hundreds of additional colleagues on hand in our terminals and we have added flights to today's schedule to facilitate an extra 10,000 passengers travelling through the airport," the spokesperson said.
British Airways said it expected to operate around 85 percent of its scheduled flights at the airport throughout the day. The airline would normally run about 600 arrivals and departures on a Saturday.
"We are planning to operate as many flights as possible to and from Heathrow on Saturday, but to recover an operation of our size after such a significant incident is extremely complex," a BA spokesperson said.
"We expect around 85 percent of our Saturday Heathrow schedule to run, but it is likely that all travelling customers will experience delays as we continue to navigate the challenges posed by Friday's power outage at the airport."
Virgin Atlantic said in a statement it plans "to run a near full schedule with limited cancellations today".
Travellers appeared jolly as planes took the skies again.
"We feel lucky. It feels everything is running quite smoothly," said 45-year-old Claire Montgomery, whose flight home to Austin, Texas, was scheduled on time.
David Storck, a university professor said it was "miraculous" that his flight to Savannah, in the US state of Georgia, was reported as only five minutes late.
"Everyone's in a positive mood. I was expecting people to be grumbly and sour but I think everyone is just so relieved," he said of the atmosphere.
Restrictions on overnight flights have been temporarily lifted to help ease congestion, according to the UK's transport department.
Around 230,000 passengers use Heathrow every day -- 83 million a year -- making it one of the world's busiest airports. Planes from Heathrow serve around 80 countries.
No indication of foul play
The scale of the disruption -- which saw a back-up transformer fail, meaning systems had to be closed down -- raised questions about Heathrow's vulnerability.
Heathrow Airport's chief executive Thomas Woldbye told the BBC he was "proud" of the airport's response and said he would "let others judge" if he should step down.
UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said the government would "need to understand what caused an incident of this magnitude at an electricity substation that is very close to a critical piece of national infrastructure".
London's Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command is leading the investigation into the fire given its impact, but said that there was "currently no indication of foul play".
Fire officials said the blaze, which broke out on Thursday night, was "believed to be non-suspicious" and that an investigation would "focus on the electrical distribution equipment".
Around 150 people were evacuated from nearby properties and the outage left 100,000 homes without power for several hours.
Smoke could still be seen coming from the electrical substation on Saturday morning.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Dubai Eye
5 days ago
- Dubai Eye
Nine injured in Ryanair emergency landing in Germany
A Milan-bound Ryanair flight was forced to make an emergency landing in southern Germany because of heavy turbulence from a thunderstorm late on Wednesday, with police saying nine passengers were injured. According to a statement by police in Bavaria, weather conditions prompted the pilot to initiate an emergency landing in Memmingen, about 113 km west of Munich. While the plane landed safely, nine people between the ages of two and 59 were injured in the air turbulence, police said. A woman sustained a head injury, her two-year-old toddler suffered bruises and another 59-year-old woman complained of back pain, with all three receiving hospital treatment, the statement said. Other injuries were treated on site. The airline is organising a bus transfer to Milan because local aviation authorities did not clear onwards flights from Memmingen, police said.
Al Etihad
5 days ago
- Al Etihad
Nine injured in Ryanair emergency landing in Germany
5 June 2025 10:01 GERMANY (REUTERS) A Milan-bound Ryanair flight was forced to make an emergency landing in southern Germany because of heavy turbulence from a thunderstorm late on Wednesday, with police saying nine passengers were to a statement by police in Bavaria, weather conditions prompted the pilot to initiate an emergency landing in Memmingen, about 70 miles (113 km) west of the plane landed safely, nine people between the ages of two and 59 were injured in the air turbulence, police said.A woman sustained a head injury, her two-year-old toddler suffered bruises, and another 59-year-old woman complained of back pain, with all three receiving hospital treatment, the statement said. Other injuries were treated on-site. The airline is organising a bus transfer to Milan because local aviation authorities did not clear onward flights from Memmingen, police said.
The National
02-06-2025
- The National
UK to redesign flight paths to slash journey times and reduce pollution
The UK has announced a major shake-up of flight paths, intended to reduce pollution, make way for flying taxis and speed up journeys. New laws were set out today to enable the largest redesign of UK airspace since it was first formed in the 1950s, when there were around 200,000 flights per year, compared to 2.7 million in 2024. Redesigned "skyways" could allow planes to climb more quickly during take-off and descend more smoothly, reducing noise and air pollution for residents who live along flight routes, the government suggested. It could also lead to fewer delays and quieter take-offs, although this has been disputed by some residents' groups concerned about noise near runways and the effect on house prices. British Airways said recently that using AI has allowed it to increase punctuality at Heathrow, to a point at which more than 90 per cent of its flights are leaving on time. The exact new flight paths have not yet been revealed. As part of the consultation leading up to the new laws, a team examined how planes fly in and out of London 's airspace, which air-traffic controllers say is one of the busiest and most complex in the world, with take-offs and landings at five major airports and several smaller ones. They aimed to use modern technology to find more efficient flight paths to reduce time in the air, for example through holding patterns before receiving permission to land. There are more than 8,000 flights daily on some of the UK's busiest days. The new UK Airspace Design Service (UKADS) will be fully operational by the end of 2025. UKADS' initial focus will be on redesigning London's airspace, including expansion at Heathrow. Over a longer timeframe, routes could be designed that support flight paths for new and emerging technologies such as drones and flying taxis, it said. Heathrow Airport: 1958 v 2020 The Aviation Minister Mike Kane said: "Redesigned 'skyways' will turbocharge growth in the aviation industry, not least by boosting airport expansion plans and supporting job creation, driving millions into the UK economy. Modernising our airspace is also one of the simplest ways to help reduce pollution from flying and will set the industry up for a long-term, sustainable future." The plans come as global forecasts suggest a near-doubling of passengers and cargo in the next 20 years. Rob Bishton, chief executive of the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said: "Modernising our airspace infrastructure is key to enabling the growth of the sector and helping mitigate its impacts." The UK's airspace network is one of the busiest and most complex in the world, handling a quarter of Europe's traffic despite having only 11 per cent of its airspace. Decades of flight from Heathrow Heathrow's chief operating officer, Javier Echave, said: "This is an important step to making UK aviation more modern, efficient, and reliable for the millions of people and businesses who rely on available airspace capacity." However, two residential groups, Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise (Hacan) and Communities Against Gatwick Noise Emissions (Cagne), raised concerns that the new routes would negatively affect house prices and increase pollution due to the increase in flights. Last year, easyJet, the UK's largest airline, said inefficient use of airspace contributes to increases in fuel consumption, carbon emissions and flight times. The carrier described the problem as a 'universal issue' across the whole of Europe, but said the 'greatest inefficiencies' for its operations are in the UK. Among the problems cited were aircraft being required to climb in steps after take-off, complex routing, and delayed descents to manage the workload of air traffic control (ATC) staff.
