Flights will begin to operate again from Heathrow Airport this evening after a fire at an electrical substation caused the travel hub to lose power causing flight chaos over the last few hours.
A number of flights to take off from the airport from 7pm – over 18 hours after the disruption began – tonight with full operations expected to recommence tomorrow.
In a statement the airport said “Our teams have worked tirelessly since the incident to ensure a speedy recovery. 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.”
“We hope to run a full operation tomorrow and will provide further information shortly. Our priority remains the safety of our passengers and those working at the airport. We apologise for the inconvenience caused by this incident.”
The UK’s largest airport – which is a major transit hub for flights from Dublin Airport – has faced criticism as to how a blaze at a single substation could have rendered it powerless.
International Air Transport Association (IATA) Director General Willie Walsh said that serious questions had to be answered due to the airport’s closure.
“Firstly, how is it that critical infrastructure—of national and global importance—is totally dependent on a single power source without an alternative?” Walsh quipped, adding that if it was, it represents a clear failure of planning by Heathrow.
He added that the question also arose as to who would pick up the costs of hundreds of thousands of delayed passengers.
“We must find a fairer allocation of passenger care costs than airlines alone picking up the tab when infrastructure fails. Until that happens, Heathrow has very little incentive to improve.” he said.
In a statement it addressed the criticism saying, “We have multiple sources of energy into Heathrow,” the airport said.
“But when a source is interrupted, we have back-up diesel generators and uninterruptible power supplies in place, and they all operated as expected.
“Our back-up systems are safety systems which allow us to land aircraft and evacuate passengers safely, but they are not designed to allow us to run a full operation.
“As the busiest airport in Europe, Heathrow uses as much energy as a small city, therefore it’s not possible to have back-up for all of the energy we need to run our operation safely.”
The blaze which caused the chaos is still burning with London Fire Brigade saying, “Approximately 5% remains alight in isolated hotspots,”.
“We will maintain a presence at the site until the incident is resolved.” it said, adding, “The fire involved a transformer comprising 25,000 litres of its cooling oil fully alight. This created a major hazard owing to the still live high voltage equipment and the nature of an oil fuelled fire.
Earlier today, the UK Police’s Counter Terrorism unit led investigations at the site of the fire although it said that this was more a matter of routine because of the impact of the incident on the UK’s national infrastructure than because of suspicion of foul play.