Flights Delays And Cancellations Expected To Rise Amid Heathrow Airport Closure—Here’s What To Know

Topline

London’s Heathrow Airport—one of the world’s biggest travel hubs—closed Friday and operation will he halted throughout the day after a fire at a nearby electrical substation caused a power outage, likely impacting hundreds of thousands of passengers and disrupting global travel.

Key Facts

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How Many Flights Have Been Disrupted By The Heathrow Closure?

According to FlightRadar24, the closure will impact at least 1,351 flights that were set to arrive at or depart from London Heathrow Airport on Friday. Globally more than 8,000 flights are delayed or cancelled as of early Friday. According to FlightAware’s real-time tracker, 300 flights originating from Heathrow and 241 flights scheduled to arrive there have been canceled as of 10:30 a.m. local time. This number, however, is likely to increase as the day progresses because of a restriction on night flights at the airport.

How Many Passengers Could Be Affected By The Heathrow Closure?

Heathrow Airport is one of the busiest airports in the world and it serves as a key hub for transatlantic flights and several other key international routes. The airport said it handled around 5.7 million passengers in February—its twelfth consecutive month where it averaged more than 200,000 passengers daily.

How Are Airlines Responding To The Heathrow Shutdown?

United Airlines cancelled all Friday flights to Heathrow and seven United flights headed for Heathrow had to return to their airports of origin or divert to other airports after the closure was announced, the airline said. According to CH-Aviation Bloomberg, American Airlines and United are the two worst hit U.S. carriers with 40 and 34 cancelations respectively. British Airways said the shutdown will “clearly have a significant impact on our operation” as Heathrow serves as the carrier’s main hub. The airline told BBC it was “redirecting inbound flights already on their way to Heathrow to other UK airports” where possible. Virgin Atlantic told Reuters that the closure has had a “significant impact” and “all Virgin Atlantic arriving and departing flights are canceled until midday on 21 March, with the rest of today’s schedule currently under review.” Budget airline Ryanair, which does not operated any flights to or from Heathrow, announced it was launching eight “rescue flights” to the nearly by London Stansted airport—four on Friday and four on Saturday.

Tangent

Aside from the Heathrow Airport, more than 16,000 homes and businesses in the London area were facing power outages at the time of publishing due to the transformer fire. Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks, the utility provider that serves the area initially said it was aiming to restore power by 3 a.m. local time, however, in an update a few hours later the company said the affected substation had to be evacuated because of the fire.

Crucial Quote

In an interview with LBC radio, British Energy Secretary Ed Miliband told LBC Radio: “We don’t yet have a real understanding of what caused the fire…but there’s no suggestion of foul play.” He then added, “We’ve got to get power restored as quickly as possible and Heathrow opened as quickly as possible. But the truth is it’s going to take time to unwind the disruption for obvious reasons.”

Further Reading

Heathrow closed all day after nearby fire causes power outage (BBC News)