Heathrow Airport in London, one of the world’s busiest air hubs, was scheduled to resume full operations on Saturday after an electrical substation fire interrupted operations for most of Friday. The disruption caused significant problems for global travel. The police were trying to find out what had caused the fire at the substation in western London that cut power to tens of thousands of nearby homes and Heathrow.

British Airways, Heathrow’s largest carrier, stated that it expected about 85 percent of its nearly 600 departures and arrivals scheduled for Saturday to take place, but delays would likely affect all passengers. The airline also decided to cancel certain flights where passengers have alternative choices for rebooking. The disruption started in the early morning hours of Friday and lasted for 16 hours. According to Cirium, an aviation data company, over 1,000 flights were redirected, impacting more than a quarter of a million individuals’ travel plans.

Arrivals resumed on Friday evening. Heathrow officials warned that there would be significant delays over the next few days as airlines attempted to restore their usual schedules. The airport advised passengers not to travel unless their airline instructed them to do so. Travelers from various destinations worldwide, including Hong Kong, South Africa, and Brazil, were flying to Heathrow on Saturday, according to Flightradar24, a flight tracking website.

Thomas Woldbye, Heathrow’s CEO, explained that while a backup transformer was functioning during the substation fire, it wasn’t sufficient to power the entire facility. The London Fire Brigade stated that extinguishing the fire was challenging due to the substation containing thousands of gallons of cooling oil. Britain’s National Grid managed to reconfigure the network temporarily to restore power to the airport and other customers.

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