London Heathrow Airport (LHR) will be closed all day today (Friday, March 21) due to a fire at a nearby electricity substation, which has caused a “significant power outage across the airport,” a Heathrow spokesperson says. The fire has been contained and the cause is currently under investigation.
In the early hours of Friday morning, Heathrow staff evacuated hundreds of stranded travelers. The airport will remain closed until March 21 at 11:59 p.m. local time, the airport said in a statement, advising travelers to not travel to Heathrow and to contact their airline for further information.
Over 1,300 flights that were scheduled to arrive and depart from Heathrow today have been canceled, per flight tracking site Flightradar24. On average, 220,000 passengers travel through Heathrow daily.
The airport’s closure had already caused major travel disruptions—not just for those planning to travel in and out of Heathrow today, but also at UK airports accepting diversion flights that had already taken off at the time of the closure. Some airlines have diverted flights to other European hubs, while one Air India flight returned to Mumbai. Nearby airports including London-Gatwick Airport, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Frankfurt Airport in Germany, and Shannon Airport in Ireland are accepting diversion flights.
LHR is the largest European airport based on seats and the fifth largest airport in the world, according to OAG flight data. Flight delays are expected in travel hubs around the world as the knock-on effect spreads and could continue throughout the weekend.
“The impact of this incident can cascade over several days, as aircraft, crew, passengers are out of place, with limited spare aircraft and seats available to recover passengers,” says a spokesperson for aviation analytics company Cirium. The largest number of flights scheduled to arrive at Heathrow on Friday were to depart from New York’s JFK airport.
Heathrow airport is the main hub for British Airways. The airline said in a statement that the outage “will clearly have a significant impact on our operation and our customers. We’re working as quickly as possible to update them on their travel options for the next 24 hours and beyond. Where possible, we’re redirecting inbound flights already on their way to Heathrow to other UK airports.”
Virgin Atlantic has advised impacted travelers to not contact the airline’s customer service team and instead “check their flight status at at virginatlantic.com where latest information is being updated.”
American Airlines is waiving the change fee for impacted passengers, who must rebook their new flights to, through, or from LHR by March 22. United Airlines is also waiving the change fee and allowing affected customers to rebook new flights departing before March 28 between the same cities as originally booked or to Amsterdam (AMS), Brussels, (BRU), Paris (CDG), and Edinburgh (EDI).
For short-haul flights that have been canceled, the best move for now may be to take the train instead—though travelers should anticipate packed cars and busy stations. Eurostar has added extra trains between London and Paris on March 21 in response to the increased demand due to the Heathrow disruption.
Travelers with flights to Europe this weekend should also prepare for potential disruptions and have a backup plan ready, especially if you are flying with British Airways.
“Today’s closure of Heathrow will undoubtedly have ripple effects at airports across all of Europe and beyond,” says Julian Kheel, a travel expert and CEO of Points Path, a flight booking tool. “Heathrow serves as the primary hub for British Airways. Even if the airport reopens as planned on Saturday, a closure of this size and magnitude will cause major disruptions across the carrier’s operations for at least a week or longer. Travelers booked to fly on British Airways in the next few days, or any carrier with significant Heathrow operations should look at options for rerouting through other London airports, or potentially even switching to alternate cities if possible.”
This is a developing news story and will be updated with more information as it becomes available. A version of this article was originally published on Condé Nast Traveller UK.
