A fire closed London's Heathrow Airport with more than 1,000 flights impacted – Canadians are entering and exiting one of the world's busiest airports.
In a statement to Global News, Air Canada said they cancelled a total of 16 flights, both of which depart and arrive from London.
On Thursday, the airline canceled seven flights to London, including three flights from Toronto, a Delhi-Linden-Calgary flight from Montreal, Calgary and Air Canada. The morning flight from Halifax to London was also cancelled on Friday.
Air Canada plans to depart on Friday to London: three flights from Toronto, each from Calgary, Montreal and Vancouver. The status of these flights is in trouble.
“We are waiting for more information from Heathrow to determine when the airport will reopen and how many flights we will allow us tonight,” the airline said in a statement to Global News.
It added: “Once Heathrow tells us how many flights we will allow us to do, we will finalize the schedule for tonight and notify customers, and as the situation normalizes, we will seek to add additional capacity to move latency customers if needed.”
An Air Canada aircraft is a Boeing 737 used for its Halifax London service and is currently stranded in London.
Although the airline was able to re-plan flights to other European airports, they said “there is limited space to do so”.
Meanwhile, Toronto Pearson Airport said that as of Friday, all flights from London to Toronto were cancelled.
“Perceivers who fly out today are advised to check their flight status with the airline,” Pearson Airport said in a statement on social media.
Global News also contacted Westjet and Air Transat for comments, but there was no replies at the time of publication.
What happened at Heathrow Airport?
A fire near London's Heathrow Airport crashed electricity on Friday to Europe's busiest flight center, forcing it to close all day and ruining global travel for hundreds of thousands of passengers.
Flighttradar 24 said at least 1,350 flights to and from Heathrow Airport were affected, and the impact could last for several days as passengers try to reschedule travel and airline jobs to bring the plane and crew to the right place.
Authorities don't know what caused the fire, but so far there has been no evidence that it is suspicious.
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Residents in western London described hearing a large explosion, followed by fireballs and smoke, when the fire passed through an electrical substation near the airport.
Tracking services show that when the closure was announced, about 120 flights passed, some turned around, and some moved to Gatwick Airport outside London, Charles De Gauler Airport near Paris or Shannon Airport in Ireland.
Lawrence Hayes was three quarters of the way to London from New York when Virgin Atlantic announced that they would be transferred to Glasgow.
“It was a red-eyed flight and I’ve been spending the whole day so I don’t even know how long I’ve been,” Hayes told the BBC as he got off the BBC. “Luckily, I managed to catch my wife and she booked me a train ticket to get back to Euston, but it would be a very long day.”
Heathrow Airport is one of the busiest international travel airports in the world. Earlier this year, it was the busiest January, with more than 6.3 million passengers, up more than 5% from the same period last year.
Still, Friday’s destruction hasn’t caused the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland, which ejected ash clouds into the atmosphere and caused months of confusion in transatlantic air travel.
Controlled fires, but affect the end of the world
Energy Minister Ed Miliband said it was too early to determine the massive fire about 2 miles (3 kilometers) from the airport, but there was no “advice” for fouls.
Officials said the London Fire Brigade led the investigation with the help of Metropolitan Police. One person familiar with the investigation said that anti-terrorism detectives were of course involved, because the reasons were unknown. They spoke on anonymity because they did not have the right to discuss the case publicly.
Miliband said the spark took seven hours to control and knocked down the airport's backup power supply. Heathrow Airport said in a statement that it had no choice but to close the airport for the day.
“We expect significant disruption in the coming days and passengers should not go to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens,” the airport said.
Heathrow Airport is the core of the UK’s air traffic control system in 2023, when the UK’s air traffic control system was hit by a collapse, reducing takeoffs and landings in the UK during the busiest travel days of the year.
Aviation consultant Anita Mendiratta said the impact of the closure will be felt within two to four days as airlines, cargo carriers and crew members are moved to positions and rebooked passengers.
“Once the airport opens at midnight tonight, it's not only about resuming tomorrow's flights, but also about the backlog and the impact it happens,” Mendirata said. “Crews and planes, many are not where they should be here now. So the recalculation will be fierce.”
Transfer, cancel and be in trouble
At Heathrow Airport, a family of five heading to Dallas appeared in the hope that their flight would take off (still classified as delay).
But when Andrea Sri brought her brother, sister and her three children to the airport, police told them there would be no flights.
“It's a waste of time. It's very confusing,” said Sri, London. “We tried to contact British Airways, but we didn't open the phone line until 8am.”
Travelers who were transferred to other cities found themselves trying to book a trip to London. Qantas sent flights to Paris from Singapore and Perth, Australia, where it said it would take people to London, a process that could also include train shuttles below the UK channel.
Ryanair, a low-cost airline that does not operate at Heathrow, said it added eight “rescue flights” between Dublin and Stansted, another airport at London airport to deliver stranded passengers on Friday and Saturday.
National Railway cancels all trains to and from the airport.
Due to night flight restrictions, flights usually start landing and take off at 6 a.m. But Friday morning, the sky was silent.
“Living near Heathrow Airport, there's a plane every 90 seconds or so, coupled with constant traffic buzz, but you're used to it until you don't notice it anymore,” said James Henderson. “Today is different, you can hear birds singing.”
Burning ignites the sky, darkening houses
Matthew Muirhead worked near Heathrow on Thursday night when he walked outside with a colleague, noticing smoke rising from the electrical substation and hearing the sirens cry.
“We saw a bright white spot and all the lights in the town went out,” he said.
The London Fire Brigade sent 10 engines and about 70 firefighters to control the fire, and about 150 people evacuated from their homes near the power station.
“This is a very obvious and significant event, and our firefighters are working tirelessly under challenging conditions to control the fire as quickly as possible,” said Assistant Commissioner Pat Goulbourne.
Scotland and Southern Power Network said in an article on X that the power outages affected more than 16,300 homes.
The British government approved the construction of a third runway at the airport earlier this year to promote economic and connectivity with the world.
– Documents with the Associated Press
