London’s Heathrow airport shuts after fire causes power outage

The United Kingdom’s Heathrow airport has closed until midnight on Friday due to a power outage, throwing the plans of tens of thousands of travellers into chaos.

London’s main airport, which is Europe’s busiest gateway, said on Friday that it had suffered a “significant” power failure due to a fire at an electrical substation supplying the facility.

“To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, Heathrow will be closed until 23h59 on 21 March,” Heathrow airport said in a post on X.

“Passengers are advised not to travel to the airport and should contact their airline for further information. We apologise for the inconvenience.”

Flight tracking website FlightRadar24 said the shutdown would affect “at least” 1,351 flights.

“We’re trying to stop passengers from travelling to the airport, and then work with airline partners on flights that are delayed, diverted, or cancelled,” a Heathrow spokesperson told Al Jazeera. “Passengers can reach out to airline partners to work on rebooking.”

Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull, reporting from London, said the roads leading to the airport were blocked, causing “traffic chaos locally”.

“But local traffic disruption is nothing compared to the air traffic disruptions that will be spreading around the world,” he said.

Heathrow is one of the most globally connected airports and regularly ranks among the top five busiest gateways worldwide.

The airport serves more than 200 destinations in nearly 90 different countries and territories, and last year handled nearly 84 million passengers, the largest number on record.

[Aljazeera]