Large crowds of passengers gathered at Heathrow Airport in London on Saturday, a day after a power outage had shut down the airport and caused delays for thousands of travelers. As power was restored, extra airport staff, dressed in purple, assisted passengers as they entered the terminal. Travelers who had been diverted or rebooked arrived early, and trains and other transportation routes to the airport had reopened. A Heathrow representative stated that the airport was operating fully and could accommodate 10,000 additional passengers that day, but long lines at ticketing counters suggested that many travelers would face further delays.

Cirium, an aviation data company, estimated that over 1,000 flights had been diverted the previous day, affecting the travel plans of over a quarter of a million people. Some travelers chose not to wait for flights and pursued alternative routes. Denyse Kumbuka, for example, had waited at Terminal 2 before finding a seat on a flight via Austria, which involved taking a train to Paris and connecting to Vienna before reaching Dallas.

Airlines were expected to experience significant delays in the following days as they attempted to restore their usual schedules. Stephen Delong and Lesley Scott, who had been traveling to Halifax, found themselves facing a much longer journey after their flight was rerouted via Toronto. The couple had already missed their grandson’s eighth birthday due to the shutdown. It was reported that the cause of the power outage, resulting from a fire at a substation in western London, was still under investigation by the police.

(No new information is provided. The article simply rephrases the original text about passengers surging into Heathrow Airport after a power blackout caused delays and disruptions to travel plans.)

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/22/world/europe/heathrow-airport-london-travelers.html