London’s Heathrow Airport announced a complete shutdown due to “large power outages”
London’s Heathrow Airport announced its complete closure throughout the day on Friday, amid a “massive power outage” of fires nearby, which led to massive disruptions to one of the world’s busiest travel centers as flights were forced to move to the middle or to other locations.
Heathrow Airport is experiencing a large number of power outages due to a fire at the electrical substation supplying the airport. To keep our passengers and colleagues safe, Heathrow Airport will be closed until 23h59 on March 21.”
“We expect significant disruption in the next few days and passengers should not go to the airport under any circumstances,” the airport said in a statement to CNN.
According to the London Fire Brigade, a transformer at an electrical substation in Hayes, a suburb of London, just a few miles from the airport, caught fire on Thursday night. The reason is not yet clear.
Overnight, dozens of firefighters were on the scene and evacuated 150 people. Utilities supplier Scotland and Southern Power Network said more than 16,000 households lost their power.
Video shared on social media shows a large amount of flames and smoke rising into the air earlier on Friday.
“As we head to the morning, disruptions are expected to increase, and we urge people to avoid the area as much as possible,” Assistant Commissioner Pat Goulbourne said in a statement from the fire brigade.
“We know this will be disappointing for passengers and we want to make sure we are working as hard as possible to resolve this situation.”
According to videos shared on social media, Heathrow Airport looks dark in the event of a power outage.
Flight tracking map shows transfer flights around London Heathrow Airport. -Flightradar/X
Massive travel interruption
The shutdown could affect thousands of travelers. According to the latest data, Heathrow Airport is the world’s largest airport in 2023, with a record 83.9 million passengers passing by last year.
Spread across five terminals, 14 miles west of central London, it usually operates at 99% capacity, and every major airline passes by, which is always busy.
“About a quarter of passengers at Heathrow Airport handles about a quarter of passengers every day,” aviation analyst Geoffrey Thomas told CNN on Friday. “We actually have hundreds of flights from the United States, from the Middle East and Southeast Asia – they are all in the air at the moment.”
Airline analysis company Cirium estimates that it could affect “more than 145,000 passengers”.
By early Friday, the airport’s website showed multiple plans to move or cancel, although others were still listed as “expected” arrivals.
British passenger transport Christine told CNN on Friday that she and her companion passengers were about to take off from Kennedy Airport in New York when they heard the news.
Christine refused to give her last name but showed travel proof, saying her British Airways flight was ready to go when the pilot announced it was asking them to hold for a while. Half an hour later, passengers were told that Heathrow Airport was closed and that another flight that had been taxed to the runway turned – leaving them stuck on the tarmac.
“It was surprisingly pretty relaxing on the plane. They were just here to feed us,” she said, but attended the wedding Saturday in the UK: “I really hope we won’t get stuck until then!”
More than 1,350 flights will be in and out of Heathrow on Friday, according to Flight Trucking website Flighttradar24. It also said that when the announcement was made, there were 120 flights. They must be transferred to another airport or redirected back to their original location.
Thomas added that while shorter domestic flights may be able to look back, it is not an option for long-distance international flights. He said there are several other airports near London, including Gatwick and Stansted, but these may be “capable”, meaning that the transferred flights must go further to find an alternative location, such as in Glasgow or Edinburgh.
This may bring another problem. He said these other airports, some of which are smaller and lower than Heathrow, are not able to handle the huge transfer passengers coming.
Thomas said they will also face tough questions when authorities compete to curb fires and navigation consequences, including why such critical travel and economic hubs cannot utilize backup power.
This is a developing story that will be updated.
CNN’s Martin Goillandeau and Juliana Liu contributed to the report.
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