Flights Resume at Heathrow After Fire Forced Its Closure (2025)

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The authorities said there was no immediate indication of foul play in the substation fire, which started on Thursday night. “After initial assessment, we are not treating this incident as suspicious,” London’s Metropolitan Police said. But counterterrorism specialists were leading the investigation into the cause of the fire, they said, given the disruption it had caused at Britain’s busiest airport.

The outage raised questions about the resilience of Britain’s largest airport and why it appeared to be so reliant on a single electrical substation. The outage forced Heathrow to cancel or divert more than 1,000 flights on Friday. A Heathrow representative said significant delays were expected in the coming days.

The first plane to touch down after the airport resumed operations was a British Airways jet from nearby Gatwick Airport that landed at about 6 p.m. local time. Soon after, several more arrived, including a British Airways flight from Tokyo, according to the flight-tracking service FlightAware.

British Airways said eight of its long-haul flights would depart from Heathrow on Friday evening, and by 9 p.m. three of the planes had taken off. A spokesman for United Airlines also said that most of the airline’s 17 scheduled flights to Heathrow were expected to operate later Friday and arrive in Britain on Saturday morning. American Airlines said it would operate its full schedule of 18 departures from the U.S. to Heathrow on Friday.

Britain’s National Grid said on Friday afternoon that it had reconfigured its network to partly restore power at Heathrow on an interim basis.

Here’s what else to know:

• Substation fire: The London Fire Brigade said around 6:30 a.m. on Friday local time that the fire at the North Hyde electricity substation had been brought under control. By Friday evening, the brigade said that about 5 percent of the blaze was still burning. London’s Metropolitan Police said their counterterrorism specialists were leading the investigation into the cause of the blaze, “given the location of the substation and the impact this incident has had on critical national infrastructure.” Read more ›

• Airlines scrambled: Flights en route to London had been diverted to other airports in Britain and elsewhere, or sent back to their origin. Travelers who left the United States for Britain’s capital landed instead in places like Glasgow, Madrid and even Happy Valley-Goose Bay, a tiny town in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Read more ›

• Heathrow scene: Police and emergency vehicles were parked at the otherwise deserted drop-off zone outside one terminal, and airport employees turned away travelers. Airline counters stood empty, digital flight information screens were blank, passageways were dimly lit by emergency lighting, and escalators stood still — an eerie scene at the usually bustling airport.

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Stranded by Heathrow’s closure, some passengers got creative. Others just gave up.

“It was an absolute real ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles,’” Mr. Kizun said, minutes after arriving in Dublin for a work trip, referring to the 1987 Steve Martin-John Candy comedy.

Mr. Kizun, 58, of Chester County, Pa., was among the thousands of anguished travelers who found themselves stranded on Friday, after a fire at an energy substation near Heathrow caused a power outage that closed the airport for the better part of a day. Some Heathrow-bound flights turned around in midair, while many others did not take off, leaving confused and anxious passengers wondering when they might finally get where they were going.

The New York Times asked readers to share their stories. Some, like Mr. Kizun, found alternative routes. Others remained in a state of limbo. A few simply gave up.

Planes were turned around midflight.

Some planes that were already in the air turned around. That was the case for the one carrying Jeannie LaChance, who was traveling to London from Los Angeles with her sister and 2-year-old niece. About four hours into the flight, the pilot let the passengers know that there was a possible fire at Heathrow and that they would have to return.

“Everyone was pretty calm, which I think was nice because we’re all trapped in a plane,” Ms. LaChance, 31, said.

Henry Kofman, 20, a sophomore at the University of Southern California, chose London as a spring break because of its theater scene. He was having such a good time that he decided to extend his trip by a day.

Tough luck. He was up late watching the “Severance” season finale when he got a news alert on his phone that Heathrow had been shut down. It seemed unreal.

“I just don’t find it believable that the busiest airport in Europe is just gone for the day,” he said.

Mr. Kofman is hoping that operations return to normal on Saturday, as airport officials have promised, so he can be back in Los Angeles in time for classes to resume on Monday.

Some travelers changed their itineraries.

Cyndi Darlington, a marketing executive, was set to take her best friend on her first overseas trip, to London and Rome. The pair sat on the plane for three hours at the San Diego airport. When they were told that the flight had been canceled, Ms. Darlington and her friend moved swiftly to reorganize their trip. Now they will head straight to Rome, cutting two days off their vacation.

“We overheard people on the plane talking about going to a wedding and making connections,” Ms. Darlington said. “And so we feel that we’re kind of lucky. And we only lost two days.”

The outage forced some passengers to cancel their trips entirely. Iris Planamento was on a plane at Newark Liberty International Airport on Thursday night, waiting to take off for a package tour that would take her to London, Normandy and Paris. After her flight was canceled, she visited an online chat forum for the tour, where people were sharing stories about being turned back midair or otherwise being diverted or delayed. Not wanting to deal with the stress, Ms. Planamento, 72, canceled her trip.

“I have to tell you that I am not a person who has anxiety problems,” she said. “For the past few weeks, I’ve been feeling a lot of anxiety. I’ve never felt that before, and yesterday was especially bad until I got to the airport and had a few drinks. Today I’m fine. I feel I’m disappointed. But the anxiety is gone.”

Camille Dee, 74, of Roslyn, N.Y., and her husband were supposed to take off from Kennedy International Airport for London on Friday night for what she described as their first vacation in six years. Their flight was canceled, and the earliest rescheduled flight that the airline is offering her is on Monday. Worried that the new itinerary may cost her hundreds of dollars in nonrefundable hotel fees and other associated costs, she is considering canceling the trip, though she did allow that her travails amounted to a “first-world problem.”

“After this, it’s going to be a while before I decide to go back to London, because this whole thing has left such a bad taste in my mouth,” Ms. Dee said.

‘A little unnerving’: The closure fueled anxiety.

Alyse Franklin, 22, a senior at Indiana University, was stressed out, not knowing when she would be able to make it home from a spring break trip with 19 classmates from her international marketing and communications class.

“Flying in general kind of makes me feel a little ill,” Ms. Franklin said. “So it’s not fun to fly already, but the fact that we don’t know when it’s going to happen and it feels like I can’t mentally prepare for it, it’s a little unnerving.”

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Woldbye said that on Saturday, “we expect to be back in full operation, so 100 percent operation as a normal day.”

The Heathrow shutdown could delay many air cargo shipments.

Supply chains are set up to maximize speed but when an important hub closes, they can break down and shipments can get delayed.

“Goods move around the globe in a really precise, timed way on a daily basis,” said Ben Farrell, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply, a global network of supply chain professionals based in London. “Any disruptions to any part of that leads to a knock-on effect elsewhere.”

British businesses will probably be most affected. Goods worth nearly 200 billion pounds ($258 billion) went through Heathrow in 2023, around a fifth of the value of the British goods trade.

“Air cargo sources from, or destined for, the British Isles can’t be rerouted to the other main freight hubs in continental Europe, and trucked from another location very quickly,” said Rico Luman, senior economist for transport, logistics and automotive at ING Research.

DHL, a global logistics company, is using ground transport to reroute shipments that were already at Heathrow to other British airports, a company spokesman said.

Global trade can be handled by other large airports in Europe, said Eytan Buchman, chief marketing officer at Freightos, a digital shipping marketplace. “This will likely be a localized problem rather than a broader European or global one,” he said.

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Dozens of U.S. flights were diverted to airports far from London.

Heathrow is the largest airport in Europe, based on the number of seats on flights to and from the hub, according to OAG, an aviation data provider.

More than 1,300 flights were scheduled to arrive at and depart from Heathrow on Friday, according to Cirium, an aviation data provider. Kennedy International Airport, in New York, had the most scheduled departures — 21 flights — to Heathrow on Friday.

With the airport planning to resume some flights later Friday, diverted travelers may be among the first to get on planes, though it’s unclear how many departures there will be or how soon. British Airways and United Airlines were among the airlines expected to begin operations there again on Friday.

“Our first flights will be repatriation flights and relocating aircraft,” a Heathrow spokeswoman said. “We will now work with the airlines on repatriating the passengers who were diverted to other airports in Europe.”

Experts said that the effects of the disruption and what followed next — airlines rebooking passengers on flights in the coming days, getting airplanes and crew back into place — would take days.

Frantic travelers have swarmed social media to ask airlines about managing canceled flights and upcoming departures, claiming in posts on X that airline apps were lagging in notifying passengers about cancellations and that customer service could not be reached by phone.

Airlines will rebook diverted passengers on new flights to get to their final destinations. What airlines are required by law to provide passengers with significant flight disruptions, including rebooked options and covered lodging, can vary by airline and by country.

Affected airlines, including British Airways, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and United Airlines, have issued waivers allowing fee-free flexible rebookings. Airlines also say they’re working with customers on diverted flights to get them to London and have provided assistance, including overnight accommodations.

Among those diverted were three Delta flights that landed in Amsterdam on Friday morning. A Delta spokesperson said the airline worked to reaccommodate travelers who were connecting at Heathrow and would be reimbursing the cost of traveling from Amsterdam to London by train. Delta is also adding three more flights departing from Amsterdam on Saturday.

Delta canceled 10 flights departing for Heathrow Friday. United, however, plans to proceed with most of its 17 scheduled departures to Heathrow. These would leave late Friday and arrive at Heathrow on Saturday morning local time. Travelers can also switch to flights to Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris or Edinburgh, a spokesperson for the airline said.

Delta plans to run a full operation of 10 arrivals to and 10 departures from Heathrow on Saturday.

Of all the airlines with schedules going to Heathrow, British Airways has been most affected. The airline diverted more than 40 flights, according to Cirium. On Friday, it was scheduled to operate more than 670 flights and carry about 107,000 customers, Sam Doyle, the airline’s chairman and chief executive, said in a statement. The airline said it canceled short-haul flights scheduled for Friday, but did not specify a number.

The resumed service will include certain flights to Johannesburg, Singapore, Riyadh, Cape Town, Sydney and Buenos Aires. Travelers on the rescheduled flights are being contacted, the airline said.

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Friday’s flight disruptions are among the biggest since a 2010 volcanic eruption in Iceland.

The airline industry’s losses were estimated at $1.7 billion, according to the International Air Transport Association, which represents airlines.

The eruption led to the worst disruption in international air travel since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when all air travel in and out of the United States was halted for three days.

The ash drifted to between 18,000 and 33,000 feet above the earth, altitudes commonly used by commercial jetliners, and flying around the ash was not an option because it covered such a large area. The guidance from the International Civil Aviation Organization at the time was clear: “In the case of volcanic ash, regardless of ash concentration — avoid, avoid, avoid.”

Volcanic ash poses particular threats to aircraft because it is primarily made up of abrasive silicate particles, which can damage jet engines.

The Civil Aviation Authority in Britain said then that volcanic eruptions typically happen in areas where air traffic is light and airspace is not congested. “There was no precedent for this type of situation,” the agency said of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption.

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Adding to the complexity, Doyle said, is that there are legal restrictions to how long crews can work. “That means even if things do get back up and running soon, we will have the logistical issue of getting new crews out to operate those aircraft,” he said.

Counterterrorism police take the lead in investigating the fire near Heathrow.

The Metropolitan Police in London said that counterterrorism specialists had taken charge “given the location of the substation and the impact this incident has had on critical national infrastructure.”

Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, said it was “not unusual” for the specialized officers to be involved in an investigation of such a major incident, and he told Sky News that there was “no reason at all for anyone to be concerned or alarmed.”

With the fire under control but still burning, nonetheless, nothing has been ruled out.

In a statement, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was “receiving regular updates” about the situation at Heathrow and was “in close contact with partners on the ground.” He added that he knew the outage was “causing distress and disruption, especially for those traveling or without power in their homes.”

A spokeswoman for Heathrow said on Friday afternoon that some flights would resume later in the day, adding that officials hoped the airport would be fully operational by Saturday.

John McDonnell, a lawmaker who represents Hayes, the area where the fire broke out, said on Friday afternoon that any investigation would need to look at “why backup arrangements have not worked” and how the infrastructure could be so vulnerable.

“There are lessons that have got to be learned here,” he told reporters.

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Substation fires are rare, but they can be very disruptive.

The London Fire Brigade and the London Metropolitan Police were investigating the cause of the fire. The blaze began in “a transformer comprising 25,000 liters of cooling oil that was fully alight” at the electric substation near Heathrow Airport, said Jonathan Smith, the deputy commissioner for the fire brigade. The fire caused the airport to lose power, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights.

Security of electrical grids has been a growing concern of governments across the world.

In the United States, electrical substations have been the target of attacks by gunmen, who caused tens of thousands of people to lose power in North Carolina, Oregon and Washington in late 2022 and early 2023.

Those shootings included two attacks on substations in Moore County, N.C., in December 2022, caused 45,000 people to lose power some for five days.

Experts have said that the shootings were inspired by a sniper attack in 2013 on a power station in California. That incident began to raise alarms across the electricity industry about the safety of substations. Some of the recent U.S. substation attacks have been linked to white supremacists.

Substations serve as connection and distribution points in the electrical grid. High-voltage transmission lines bring electricity from power plants, some hundreds of miles away, to substations that reduce voltage so the electricity can be distributed to homes and businesses.

Loss of substations can severely disrupt electrical service because each one can serve tens of thousands of homes and businesses. Some larger substations feed energy to smaller substations.

Megan Specia contributed reporting.

Residents near the burning power station saw ‘a massive ball of flame.’

On a street behind the police cordon, Nesh Khan returned to his home around midday, after leaving early Friday morning. On Thursday night, he said, he heard two loud bangs and looked outside to see “a massive ball of flame and a massive cloud of smoke going all over.”

With thick, sooty smoke hanging in the air as firefighters battled the blaze, he said, he and his wife decided to leave with their infant son before evacuation instructions came.

Another resident, Navdeep Saggi, did not evacuate the home he shares with his parents, his wife and two young children. He kept the doors and windows closed, as authorities advised, even as the smoke had cleared by Friday afternoon.

On Thursday night, he said he was awakened by a loud bang, and a flurry of messages and calls from a neighborhood group. Behind his home, he saw flames from the power station burning higher than a three-story warehouse next door.

Britain’s National Grid said on Friday afternoon that the network of the North Hyde substation “has been reconfigured to restore all customers impacted,” and apologized for the disruption.

“We are continuing to work closely with all stakeholders to manage this incident, and are focused on returning to normal resilience levels as soon as possible.”

John McDonnell, the lawmaker who represents Hayes, said that any investigation of the fire will need to examine “why backup arrangements have not worked” and how the affected infrastructure was so vulnerable.

“There are lessons that have got to be learned here,” he told reporters on Friday afternoon.

Megan Specia and Claire Moses contributed reporting.

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Aviation chaos can quickly spiral, despite contingency plans.

“They’re thinking not just in terms of a single day, but recovery,” said Dr. Michael McCormick, a professor of air traffic management at Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University, who managed the federal airspace over New York during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. “They have to look at where passengers with bags, aircraft and aircrews need to be tomorrow, the next day, and the next day.”

When crises occur, airlines’ network operation centers jump into overdrive. They are the nerve centers of the business — typically large, quiet, secure rooms with power backups and protections against severe weather and disasters.

At large airlines, the operations centers are staffed around the clock with teams that monitor the weather, manage planes and flights, communicate with air traffic control, schedule crews and much more.

Small disruptions can be handled surgically — a sick pilot can be replaced with an alternate on call nearby or a broken plane swapped out for another. But bigger disruptions like the one at Heathrow can require scrapping and reworking intricate plans while taking into account a wide range of limitations.

When Southwest Airlines struggled to overcome the effects of severe weather during the winter holidays in late 2022, for example, it canceled thousands of flights over several days in order to move crews and planes to where they needed to be.

On Friday, the budget airline Ryanair, which operates frequent flights across Europe, said it had added eight flights between Dublin and London’s Stansted airport over two days to “rescue” passengers affected by the Heathrow outage. Other airlines were also working desperately to reroute passengers, but that is often easier said than done.

Planes differ in how many people they can carry and how far they can fly, so a small plane used for shorter domestic flights cannot easily be swapped for a larger one used on longer flights. They also must be fueled adequately and their weight balanced appropriately, needs that have to be adjusted if planes are rerouted.

Regulations also require that pilots and flight attendants are not overworked and are allowed to rest after a certain number of hours on the clock. If a flight takes too long to depart, a crew can time out. When schedulers reassign crews, they also have to take into account where those pilots and flight attendants are needed next, or they could risk more disruptions later.

“Even if things do get back up and running soon, we will have the logistical issue of getting new crews out to operate those aircraft,” Sean Doyle, the chief executive of British Airways, said in a video statement.

The airline operates more than half the flights into and out of Heathrow, according to Cirium, an aviation data firm. In the statement, Mr. Doyle said the outage would have “a huge impact” on British Airways customers in the following days.

Airlines, of course, do not operate in isolation. As they change plans, they need to work with airport and air traffic control officials who may have limited resources to accommodate the changes. Airports are limited not just in how many flights they can receive, but also, in some cases, what types of planes they can safely accept. National aviation systems may also be limited: In the United States, for example, many air traffic control towers have long suffered from controller shortages.

Disruptions, referred to as irregular operations, are frequent and the industry prepares for them. Airlines and airports rehearse how they might respond to disarray caused by severe weather, terrorist attacks and other catastrophes and maintain crisis response playbooks. But disorder can take many forms, so those plans are often only guides.

“There is always a need for some improvisation as every situation has its own unique challenges,” said Tom Parry, the head of business resilience at Kiwi.com, a travel search and deals website.

The power outage at Heathrow was caused by a fire at a nearby electrical substation. The police in London said that there was no indication that it was the result of an intentional act, though they were still investigating. Such fires are rare, but some criticized Heathrow for not being better prepared.

“How is it that critical infrastructure — of national and global importance — is totally dependent on a single power source without an alternative,” Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association, a global airline trade association, said in a statement.

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Amid questions about how the electricity substation fire near the airport caused it to lose power, Heathrow’s statement said that that backup systems, including diesel generators, did kick in. Those backups would have allowed planes to land, but would not have allowed the airport to operate fully, it said.

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Power is mostly restored to homes after the fire near Heathrow.

National Grid, the company that operates major systems that transport power from generation plants to consumption hubs in England and Wales, said it had restored power to 62,000 customers as of 6 a.m. local time.

The fire at its North Hyde substation, one of the facilities that provides power to Heathrow Airport, was brought under control a short time later, around 6:30 a.m.

Just before 11 a.m., a spokeswoman for National Grid said in an email that about 4,900 customers remained without power, but added that the utility was working to restore service.

The North Hyde facility receives high voltage power and converts it into lower voltage current, which is distributed through the local network to smaller substations; from there, it flows to homes and businesses.

The local power distribution network is owned by Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks, a utility based in Scotland.

North Hyde is one of multiple points that feed Heathrow Airport, supplying the area northeast of the airport, according to a recent planning document.

The cause of the blaze remains unclear. Ed Miliband, Britain’s energy secretary, said in a radio interview that there was no reason to suspect foul play. But he added that there still was no “real understanding of what caused the fire.”

In an interview with the British broadcaster Sky News on Friday, Mr. Miliband said that the blaze had affected a number of back up generators, further complicating the response.

Stanley Reed contributed reporting.

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