London Heathrow Airport said it was “fully operated” on Saturday after an electrical substation fire caused almost a full day of closure. But airlines warned that severe damage will last for days as they scramble to resettle aircraft and crew and take passengers to their destination.
The airport owner said he was proud of Heathrow's response to the incident. But after inconvenience, passengers, angry airlines and relevant politicians sought answers on how a seemingly unexpected fire shut down Europe's busiest air hub.
“Our terminal has hundreds of colleagues and we have added flights to today's schedule to facilitate an additional 10,000 passengers across the airport,” Heathrow said in a statement.
British Airways, the largest airline in Heathrow, said it expects to operate about 85% of the airport's 600 scheduled flights on Saturday. “The operation to restore our scale after such a major event is very complicated,” it said.
More than 1,300 flights were cancelled, and about 200,000 people were stranded in the overnight fire on Friday, cutting Heathrow's substation (3.2 km) from the airport and heading to more than 60,000 properties.
Residents in western London described hearing the sound of the big bang and seeing fireballs and smoke as the substation tore. Seven hours later, the fire was under control, but the airport was closed for nearly 18. Several flights took off and landed late Friday.
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Police said they do not think the fire is suspicious, and the London Fire Brigade said its investigation will focus on electrical distribution equipment at the substation.
Nevertheless, the huge impact of the fire has put the authorities in criticism that Britain's squeaky infrastructure is underprepared for disasters or attacks.
The UK government acknowledged that the authorities had questions to answer and said a rigorous investigation was needed to ensure that “the scale of this destruction does not happen again”.
Heathrow CEO Thomas Woldbye said he was “proud” of the way airport and airline staff responded.
“Remember, this situation was not created at Heathrow Airport.” “The airport has not been closed for a few days. We closed for hours.”
He said Heathrow's backup power supply was designed for emergencies, and it operates as expected but isn't enough to run the entire airport, using as much energy as a small city.
“That's how most airports work,” Waldby said, insisting that “this happens at other airports.”
Heathrow Airport is one of the busiest international travel airports in the world, with 83.9 million passengers last year.
When the closure was announced, I found myself landing in different cities, or even different countries, passengers on about 120 flights were passing by.
Friday's destruction was one of the worst since the 2010 eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which shrouded ash in the atmosphere and shut down European airspace for days.
Mark Doherty and his wife were crossing the Atlantic Ocean as the onboard map showed them flying from John F. Kennedy Airport in New York to Heathrow.
“I was thinking, you’re kidding,” Doherty said before the pilot told the passengers they were going back to New York.
Doherty called this situation “typical England – there is no backup plan for something like this. There is no contingency plan.”
& Copy 2025 Canadian Press
