London: Flights at Heathrow, UK, began to resume late Friday after the blaze burst out power, forcing Europe’s busiest airports to close. Thousands of passengers were trapped, causing global travel disruptions.
Heathrow said its team worked tirelessly to reopen the world’s largest airport after a massive fire engulfed a substation near the airport Thursday night. Travelers are advised to stay away from travelers for the time being.
The airport is scheduled to handle 1,351 flights on Friday, with a capacity of up to 291,000 passengers. However, the planes were transferred to other airports in the UK and Europe, and many long-haul flights returned to their departure points.
Heathrow said a limited number of flights will be available on Friday, mainly to relocate and bring them to London.
“Tomorrow morning, we hope to be fully operational until a normal day,” said Thomas Woldbye, CEO of Heathrow. “I want to apologize to many of the people who have been affected by the travel. We are very sorry for our inconvenience.”
Police said there was no sign of foul, but counter-terrorism officials are leading the investigation due to the critical nature of its expertise and infrastructure.
The closures not only caused frustration among travelers, but also caused anger from airlines, questioning how such an important infrastructure failed.
Now, the aviation industry faces potential financial losses in tens of millions of pounds, as well as an upcoming controversy over who should bear the costs.
“You would think they will have a significant reserve force,” a senior executive at an European airline told Reuters.
Woldbye at Heathrow defended the airport’s response, saying the backup system was operating as expected.
“This (power) is a bit of a weakness,” he admits. “But, of course, we can’t protect ourselves 100% and that’s one of them.”
When asked about financial responsibility, he said procedures had been made but added: “We have no responsibility for incidents like this.”
British Transport Minister Heidi Alexander said the situation was beyond Heathrow’s control.
“They quickly implemented the resilience program and worked closely with emergency responders and airline operators,” she told reporters.
“There is no advice when the foul is done, but the investigation remains open.”
Flight transfer
Several airlines including JetBlue, American Airlines, Air Canada, Air Canada, Air Canada, Air India, Qantas, United Airlines, British Airways (owned by IAG) and Virgin Atlantic have been transferred or forced to return to their original airports, according to flight analysis company Cirium.
Stocks of several airlines, including American Airlines, fell due to disruptions.
Aviation experts say the last time European airports faced such extensive damage was during the 2010 Icelandic volcanic ash cloud crisis, which occupied about 100,000 flights.
When the flight restarts, it will take time to return to normal.
“We have flights and cabin crews and planes that are currently unintentional,” said Sean Doyle, CEO of British Airways.
“Unfortunately, this will have a significant impact on all of our customers in the coming days.”
The fire brigade said the cause of the fire was still unknown, but confirmed that 25,000 liters of cooling oil in the substation transformer were on fire. In the morning, I saw the transformer being muffled and covered with white fire foam.
Standed passengers in London scrambled to make alternative travel arrangements as they face extended delays.
“It’s incredible pressure,” said 39-year-old professor Robyn Autry. “I’m worried about how much I’ll spend to fix this.”
Hotel prices around Heathrow Airport have soared, with some booking sites offering rooms for £500, which is five times the usual.
A wake-up call
Airline executives, electrical engineers and passengers have questioned how Britain’s major portal to the world has been stuck by a fire.
Heathrow, along with other major London airports, has experienced previous disruptions in recent years, and has recently crashed due to gate failures and air traffic systems in 2023.
Philip Ingram, a former British military intelligence officer, said the incident exposed weaknesses in Britain’s critical infrastructure.
“It’s a wake-up call,” he told Reuters. “The Heathrow agency should never be completely shut down due to the failure of an electric substation.”
Willie Walsh, the head of global airline IATA and former British Airways chief, once again criticized Heathrow for once again letting passengers down.
Heathrow said it has a diesel generator and uninterrupted power supply that can safely land aircraft and evacuate passengers. These systems operate as expected. However, since airports consume as much energy as a small city, it cannot be fully operated on just backup systems.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the incident had been conducted and confirmed a thorough investigation would be conducted.
