Heathrow Airport, one of the busiest aviation hubs globally, began its first full day of operations on Saturday after a fire at an electrical substation led to halted services for most of Friday. Though flights resumed, the aftermath of the significant fire caused considerable disruptions to global travel.
Investigations by the Metropolitan Police are underway to determine the cause of the electrical substation fire in western London, which not only disrupted power to the airport but also affected tens of thousands of homes nearby. According to authorities, there are currently no indications of foul play linked to the incident.
British Airways, Heathrow's primary airline, reported that on Saturday, roughly 85 percent of its nearly 600 scheduled flights would proceed, although widespread delays are expected to impact travelers. The airline announced the cancellation of certain flights on high-frequency routes, allowing passengers more flexible rebooking options.
The disruption, which lasted approximately 16 hours, impacted over a thousand flights, affecting travel arrangements for more than a quarter of a million people, as reported by aviation data company Cirium. Arrivals resumed by Friday evening, yet the airport representatives warned travelers of ongoing delays as airlines worked to restore their schedules.
“Please avoid traveling to the airport unless you have been advised to do so by your airline,” said a Heathrow spokesperson on Friday. As travel resumed on Saturday morning, planes from destinations as varied as Hong Kong, South Africa, and Brazil were arriving, as tracked by Flightradar24.
Thomas Woldbye, Heathrow’s chief executive, stated that while a backup transformer functioned correctly during the fire, it lacked the capacity to fully power the airport. The London Fire Brigade highlighted the challenges in extinguishing the blaze due to the presence of cooling oil stored at the substation.
The National Grid of Britain has indicated that steps were taken to reconfigure the substation's network, enabling temporary restoration of power to the airport and nearby customers.
