Operations are set to resume at Heathrow Airport in London following a large-scale power outage that disrupted hundreds of flights.
According to a post on X by the airport on Friday, Heathrow aims to be fully operational again starting Saturday.
“Our teams have worked tirelessly since the incident to ensure a speedy recovery,” the post stated. “We’re now safely able to restart flights, prioritising repatriation and relocation of aircraft. Please do not travel to the airport unless your airline has advised you to do so.”
Another update on Heathrow’s website stated that the airport will run a “reduced operation prioritizing repatriation and relocation of aircraft.”
The roughly 14-hour outage was reportedly caused by a fire at the nearby North Hyde electrical substation, according to AP News. Authorities are still investigating the cause of the fire.
According to data from aviation analytics company Cirium, at least 1,300 flights at the airport have been affected by the outage on Friday. Around 1,200 total additional flights are scheduled to depart to and from Heathrow on Saturday.
Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), said in an online statement Friday that the airport closure “will inconvenience a huge number of travelers.”
“We thank those affected for their patience as airlines focus on getting them to their destination as quickly and efficiently as possible,” he said. “This is yet another case of Heathrow letting down both travelers and airlines.”
“And that begs some serious questions,” Walsh continued. “Firstly, how is it that critical infrastructure—of national and global importance—is totally dependent on a single power source without an alternative. If that is the case—as it seems—then it is a clear planning failure by the airport. And, from that arises the question of who bears the costs of taking care of disrupted travelers.”
Walsh called for “a fairer allocation of passenger care costs” rather than having airlines alone “pickup up the tab when infrastructure fails.”
Until that happens, Heathrow has very little incentive to improve,” he said.
British Airways CEO Sean Doyle posted a video statement on X Friday saying the airline was “forced to effectively ground its flying operation” due to the outage.
“This is an unprecedented situation, and we have not seen a closure of Heathrow on this scale for many years,” he said. “Unfortunately, it will have a huge impact on all of our customers flying with us over the coming days.”
“Today, we were due to operate more than 670 flights carrying around 107,000 customers, with similar numbers planned over the weekend,” Doyle continued. “We have flight and cabin crew colleagues and planes that are currently at locations where we weren’t planning on them to be. This is because we had to divert flights that were in the air when it became clear we weren’t going to be able to land at Heathrow.”
Doyle said British Airways crews are legally limited to operating only a certain number of hours in order to ensure safety. This will cause a logistical issue of getting new crews in place to operate those aircraft once operations resume.
