Heathrow closure: airport plans to renew some flights at present and hopes for full Saturday service – stay | Heathrow airport

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No suggestion foul play brought about the hearth at Heathrow, says transport minister

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander mentioned she had spoken to Heathrow Airport’s chief government about “any classes that is perhaps discovered for the long run” after the hearth at a substation which grounded flights on Friday.

There is no such thing as a suggestion of foul play within the fireplace that brought about Heathrow to shut at present, she mentioned.

Just like the British Airways chair and CEO Sean Doyle earlier (see 16.41) she described the state of affairs at Heathrow as “completely unprecedented state of affairs”, including that it had been “exterior of Heathrow’s management”.

She added: “I definitely didn’t anticipate to get up this morning and see that vast fireplace occurring.”

She thanked the emergency companies for his or her response and the Nationwide Grid for getting energy restored to the airport, in addition to employees at Heathrow who’ve “labored tirelessly all day to get to a degree at present the place flights are capable of land once more and the place the airport hopes to renew full operations tomorrow”.

Requested what questions there are to reply concerning the incident, she mentioned: “We have to perceive what brought about an incident of this magnitude at an electrical energy substation that may be very near a crucial piece of nationwide infrastructure.”

She mentioned she was in shut contact with the Vitality Secretary, the house secretary and with Heathrow to “make it possible for any classes we have to study from the programs that the airport has in place are discovered”.

She added that counter-terrorism police are concerned in figuring out the reason for the substation fireplace as a result of it happened subsequent to a crucial piece of nationwide infrastructure.

“The counter-terrorism command has particular capabilities and capacities that imply that they’re used to conducting investigations at tempo, and it’s actually necessary that we establish the reason for this rapidly.

“There are not any solutions for the time being of foul play, however you’ll respect the investigation, retains an open thoughts, and our precedence is figuring out the trigger as quickly as attainable.”

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Up to date at 13.32 EDT

The non-public finance web site Moneysavingexpert.com has revealed an in depth information to elucidate your journey and refund rights when you have been affected by the disruption at Heathrow.

Reporter Emily White writes:

Flying FROM Heathrow on any airline? You’re lined

Flying TO Heathrow on a UK or EU airline? You’re additionally lined

Flying TO Heathrow on a non-UK/EU airline? The UK/EU guidelines don’t apply, so that you’ll must strategy the airline immediately for any help concerning delays or cancellations. Alternatively, you possibly can additionally attempt your journey insurer.

She advises that your airline ought to present foods and drinks (or vouchers to purchase them) in case you’re delayed for greater than two hours on a short-haul flight, three hours on medium haul (for instance, Manchester to Malaga) or 4 hours for lengthy haul. “If it’s unable to, you should buy your individual and declare it again, however ensure you preserve receipts,” she wrote. “Verify in case your airline’s web site has any steerage on what it’ll cowl.”

The airline also needs to present lodging if wanted. “If the flight is delayed in a single day you’re entitled to a lodge, and the airline should additionally present transport to and from it,” she added. “Ideally it can prepare the lodge for you, so at all times verify earlier than you ebook someplace.”

Rory Boland, Editor of Which? Journey, mentioned that though the legislation requires airways to reroute passengers to their vacation spot on the earliest alternative, together with with different carriers when mandatory, typically airways refuse to take action.

He mentioned: “If passengers are being informed by their airline to attend days for the following accessible flight, and have exhausted efforts to get them to rebook them on earlier departures with an alternate airline then they’re inside their rights to make that reserving themselves and declare the cash again.

“This ought to be a final resort, as your declare might be contested by the airline resulting in a prolonged claims course of.”

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Now we have an replace about what high 10 airways whose plane have been set to reach at Heathrow on Friday are saying concerning the closure to their passengers, because of analysis by reporters at Reuters.

Aer Lingus:

“Cancelling all flights to and from London Heathrow Airport till additional discover at present following the closure of the airport by the authorities.”

Air India:

“London Heathrow-bound AI129 from Mumbai is returning to Mumbai; AI161 from Delhi is diverting to Frankfurt. All our remaining flights to and from London Heathrow, together with AI111 of this morning, have been cancelled for 21 March.”

American Airways:

“American issued a journey alert, offering further flexibility for patrons impacted by the London Heathrow Airport closure.” Supply: Knowledge from Cirium Ascend, firm statements. Observe: The seats signify capability, not ticketed passengers.”

British Airways:

“We’ve been given clearance by Heathrow Airport to depart eight of our long-haul flights at present from 7pm. We at the moment are urgently contacting clients to allow them to know to allow them to make their solution to the airport from 5pm.”

Delta Air Strains:

“Delta has suspended operations to Heathrow Airport and supplied clients further flexibility in rebooking their journey.”

JetBlue:

All JetBlue flights to and from Heathrow will likely be cancelled and extra flights could also be scheduled as soon as the airport reopens to accommodate affected passengers.

Qantas

“Our Singapore-London and Perth-London companies have been diverted to Paris at present, with buses organized to take clients on to London.”

Ryanair:

The airline mentioned in a publish on X that it had added as much as eight rescue flights between Dublin and London Stansted to rescue passengers affected by Heathrow’s closure.

United Airways:

“We are going to proceed to regulate our flying schedule to London in shut coordination with airport authorities. At the moment, we anticipate to function most scheduled Friday departures to London.”

Virgin Atlantic:

“This has had a major influence on our flying programme each into and out of Heathrow and all Virgin Atlantic arriving and departing flights are cancelled till noon on March 21, with the remainder of at present’s schedule presently below evaluation.”

Scandinavian Airways System:

“All our 12 spherical journeys are to date cancelled to and from Heathrow. We are going to preserve affected passengers knowledgeable.”

Singapore Airways:

A spokesperson for the airline mentioned 4 flights from Singapore to London have been affected and 4 flights from London to Singapore had been cancelled.

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Up to date at 13.20 EDT

Extra folks have been getting in contact with my colleagues Rachel Obordo and Jedidajah Otte to share their tales of all of the journey disruption they’ve been experiencing.

Analysis engineer Richard, 35, from East Anglia is stranded in Shanghai after ready on the boarding gate for practically 10 hours. He’s been on a enterprise journey in Shanghai for 2 weeks and is ready for his flight to be rearranged.

“I’m in no rush to get again to the UK and I wouldn’t actually have the ability to pay for a alternative flight anyway. Fortunately British Airways has booked all passengers right into a lodge round 20 minutes from Shanghai Pudong airport. I hope I can fly tomorrow.”

James from Devon can be caught in China, in Guangzhou, after a five-day go to to search for new inside items at a commerce present. He mentioned his airline China Southern have been “glorious” and have supplied him and different passengers with lodging and meals vouchers.

“They’ve even been checking in with me each few hours which is nothing in need of superb,” mentioned the 37-year-old.

“I must get again to the UK and if I don’t get a stable replace inside the subsequent few hours I’ll almost definitely begin to search for different choices. I’m not 100% positive after I’ll be returning dwelling, however for now I’m very comfy.

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Some images have emerged of the hearth on the substation and the injury it brought about:

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Aviation marketing consultant John Strickland has informed the PA information company the closure of Heathrow for a whole day is “an enormous dislocation to should recuperate from”.

He likened the disruption to what occurred after the September 11 terrorist assaults in 2001, when flights have been grounded throughout the US, saying: “It’s a contained model of 9/11.”

Heathrow is Europe’s largest airport, with greater than 83.9 million passengers travelling by way of its terminals in 2024.

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Lengthy-haul flights will resume at 7pm

British Airways has been given clearance for eight long-haul flights to depart Heathrow Airport at present from 7pm, the airline mentioned in an announcement.

The airport is now “urgently contacting clients to allow them to know to allow them to make their solution to the airport from 5pm”.

The one clients who ought to make their solution to Heathrow Airport are these booked onto the next flights:

BA055 to Johannesburg

BA057 to Johannesburg

BA011 to Singapore

BA259 to Riyadh

BA045 to Cape City

BA059 to Cape City

BA015 to Sydney by way of Singapore

BA249 to Buenos Aires by way of Rio de Janeiro

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Up to date at 12.53 EDT

Mark, 34, a structural engineer from Brighton, was resulting from fly dwelling after a vacation in India and is now stranded in Mumbai.

He informed my colleagues Rachel Obordo and Jedidajah Otte: “My associate and I have been informed two hours earlier than our British Airways flight from Mumbai to Heathrow that the flight was cancelled,” he mentioned. “BA didn’t inform anybody of this earlier so we travelled to the airport to be informed by employees on the check-in desk. There was a cursory e-mail from BA as we have been on the way in which to the airport saying Heathrow is closed, that the flight is delayed and that we should always verify their web site for flight standing – which merely acknowledged ‘delayed’.”

The couple was initially informed by BA airport employees that they’d be placed on a distinct flight the following day, and to ebook themselves a lodge which might be absolutely refunded, which they did, shelling out £180 for one evening.

A short time later, one other BA airport employees member knowledgeable the couple that solely 7000 Rupees (round £60) can be refunded for lodge prices – lower than half than Mark and his associate had spent unexpectedly as native motels have been filling up quickly – with out making clear whether or not this was relevant to a number of nights if mandatory or the overall quantity they’d be compensated for.

British Airways solely emailed the couple 9 hours after the flight was cancelled, with a hyperlink to their web site the place the couple’s solely possibility was to have their flight reserving refunded. When the couple checked flights, there have been no BA flights left till subsequent week.

“We will’t pay money for anybody from BA to rebook our flight,” Mark mentioned. “It’s all digital assistants within the on-line chat, with 96 folks forward of us within the queue.”

The state of affairs at Heathrow “clearly couldn’t be helped,” Mark mentioned. “BA has been appalling although. We simply wish to get again to the UK and have any bills paid, however it’s not trying promising. I would like to assist my sister as she’s unwell.”

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Folks have been getting in contact with my colleagues Rachel Obordo and Jedidajah Otte to share their tales of journey disruption.

Marélie, 28, and her boyfriend Carl, each from London, are caught in Philadelphia ready to return dwelling after spending three weeks on vacation in Mexico. They have been onboard their connecting flight with American Airways once they have been informed to disembark after half-hour. “Our flight was at 10pm and we have been stored within the gate space till round 1am earlier than we discovered concerning the state of affairs at Heathrow,” mentioned Marélie. “We ended up sleeping on the airport.”

They have been resulting from return to London at present earlier than returning to work on Monday however as a substitute have needed to pay for brand new flights, meals, transport and lodging. “It’s costing us practically £1,000 for the each of us to get dwelling on Sunday,” she mentioned.

“We’ve received a flight arriving at Gatwick on Sunday morning, with a layover of 12 hours in Orlando. I really feel completely let down by American Airways. The method of getting to ebook a brand new flight has been nerve-racking with seats and costs altering by the point you get to the top of the reserving course of.”

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Greater than 100,000 British Airways clients have had their flights cancelled

The state of affairs at Heathrow at present was “unprecedented” the British Airways chairman and CEO Sean Doyle has mentioned.

Doyle issued a video assertion, saying British Airways had not seen a closure of Heathrow on this scale for “a few years”.

He warned that the ability outage would proceed to have a “large influence” on all British Airways clients over the approaching days, as BA has cancelled each short-haul flight and ‘the bulk’ of long-haul flights that have been scheduled to function at Heathrow at present.

On-line flight monitoring service Flightradar24 mentioned greater than 1,350 flights have been scheduled to take off or land on the airport on Friday.

“To provide you an concept of the dimensions of disruption we face which we’re working to minimise, at present we have been resulting from function greater than 670 flights carrying round 107,000 clients, with related numbers deliberate over the weekend.”

Doyle mentioned the disruption to passengers is anticipated to proceed: “Now we have flight and cabin crew colleagues and planes which are presently at areas the place we weren’t planning on them to be. It’s because we needed to divert flights that have been within the air when it turned clear we weren’t going to have the ability to land at Heathrow,” added Sean.

“Our crews are solely legally allowable to function for a sure variety of hours over any given time period, which provides additional complexity into our planning. Meaning even when issues do get again up and operating quickly, we could have the logistical concern of getting new crews out to function these plane.

“As well as, our engineering and upkeep operation have additionally had no energy. That is being addressed however is one other instance of the extremely difficult state of affairs we discover ourselves in.”

Doyle apologised for the disruption and mentioned the airline is will put “all accessible assets” onto cellphone strains, and prolonged the calls centre opening occasions. Updates are additionally being posted on its web site and despatched out by way of its app.

“We are going to in fact work at tempo to get clients and colleagues to the place they should be as safely and as rapidly as attainable,” he mentioned.

“I’m sorry to all people who’s experiencing this disruption and ask you on your understanding whereas we work to recuperate our operation from such a major problem which is complicated to work by way of.

“Thanks to our clients for bearing with us and the 1000’s of our colleagues all over the world for his or her exhausting work.”

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Up to date at 12.48 EDT

Heathrow to renew some flights at present

Heathrow has apologised for the inconvenience attributable to the ability outage.

A Heathrow spokesperson mentioned: “Our groups have labored tirelessly for the reason that incident to make sure a speedy restoration. We’re happy to say we’re now safely capable of start some flights later at present.

“Our first flights will likely be repatriation flights and relocating plane. Please don’t journey to the airport until your airline has suggested you to take action.

“We are going to now work with the airways on repatriating the passengers who have been diverted to different airports in Europe. We hope to run a full operation tomorrow and can present additional info shortly.

“Our precedence stays the security of our passengers and people working on the airport. Because the busiest airport in Europe, Heathrow makes use of as a lot vitality as a small metropolis, due to this fact getting again to a full and protected operation takes time. We apologise for the inconvenience attributable to this incident.”

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Up to date at 12.21 EDT

Energy has been restored at Heathrow and it’s reopening

Energy has been restored at Heathrow airport and it has begun the method of reopening.

The airport mentioned it’s “safely capable of start some flights later at present”.

The information comes as Nationwide Grid introduced an “interim resolution” has been discovered to permit energy to be restored to the airport (see 15.09)

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Up to date at 12.27 EDT

Unclear when Heathrow will reopen, regardless of ‘interim’ repair – abstract

Heathrow Airport in London, Europe’s busiest airport, stays closed till a minimum of 11.59pm tonight following a fireplace at an electrical energy substation in Hayes, west London, which left it with out electrical energy.

Round 200,000 passengers have been affected by the closure, with over 1,300 flights disrupted.

Nationwide Grid believes it could have discovered “an interim resolution” which may permit it to revive electrical energy provides to vitality customers, together with “the flexibility to resupply the components of Heathrow airport” related to its fire-damaged substation.

There have been reviews about components of the airport showing to be receiving vitality once more, with lights on in Terminal 4.

However Heathrow mentioned it doesn’t have “readability on when energy could also be reliably restored,” and “passengers shouldn’t journey to the airport below any circumstances till the airport reopens.”

The airport additionally responded to widespread criticism, together with from IATA, of its back-up vitality programs, saying they labored “as anticipated” when the substation fireplace began, however “they aren’t designed to permit us to run a full operation.”

The Metropolitan police has now confirmed that the counter-terrorism command is main inquiries as to the supply of fireside on the substation in Hayes, however pressured there may be “presently no indication of foul play.”

A spokesperson for the British prime minister has mentioned the federal government anticipated “there will likely be important disruption within the hours and days forward and we’ll do the whole lot we will to help these affected.”

And that’s all from me, Jakub Krupa, as I’m handing the weblog over to Donna Ferguson.

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Whereas there was no additional updates from Heathrow but, US service United Airways informed Reuters it anticipated its flights to have the ability to go away america in a while Friday and land at London’s Heathrow Airport on Saturday morning native time.

Related indicators have been reported from Air Canada.

However, to emphasize, there was no formal affirmation of any of that from the airport authorities and their earlier recommendation for passengers to not journey to the airport till it reopens stays in place.

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Nationwide Grid discovered ‘interim resolution’ to provide electrical energy after substation fireplace

Jillian Ambrose

Nationwide Grid believes it could have discovered “an interim resolution” which may permit it to revive electrical energy provides to vitality customers, together with “the flexibility to resupply the components of Heathrow airport” related to its fire-damaged substation.

A spokesman for the grid firm mentioned Heathrow was presently evaluating the plan which includes reconfiguring the stream of electrical energy to bypass the broken substation. These efforts have already restored energy to the final remaining houses left with out electrical energy after the blaze, the spokesman mentioned.

Within the meantime Nationwide Grid will proceed to work on returning the substation to regular operations, they added.

Right here is the assertion, in full:

A Nationwide Grid spokesperson mentioned:

“We’re sorry for the disruption attributable to a fireplace at our North Hyde substation and for the lack of energy provides within the space. Groups have been working across the clock to revive energy as quickly as attainable.

Working in partnership with the native community operator SSEN Distribution (SSEN), the community has been reconfigured to revive all clients impacted, together with the flexibility to resupply the components of Heathrow airport which are related to North Hyde.

That is an interim resolution whereas we supply out additional work at North Hyde to return the substation and our community to regular operation.

We’re persevering with to work carefully with all stakeholders to handle this incident, and are targeted on returning to regular resilience ranges as quickly as attainable.”

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It could seem the ability is again on at Heathrow Terminal 4, PA information company reported.

It mentioned the lights are again on in the principle constructing and the lifts within the multi-storey automotive park are additionally working once more.

Earlier at present, the London fireplace brigade mentioned at its briefing that Terminals 2 and 4 continued to haven’t any energy.

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No readability on when energy could also be reliably restored, Heathrow says

Heathrow mentioned it doesn’t have “readability on when energy could also be reliably restored,” and “passengers shouldn’t journey to the airport below any circumstances till the airport reopens.”

In an announcement carried by PA, a Heathrow spokesperson mentioned:

“Heathrow is experiencing a major energy outage throughout the airport resulting from a big fireplace at a close-by electrical substation.

“While fireplace crews are responding to the incident, we do not need readability on when energy could also be reliably restored.

We anticipate important disruption over the approaching days and passengers shouldn’t journey to the airport below any circumstances till the airport reopens.

We are going to present an replace when extra info on the resumption of operations is obtainable.

We all know this will likely be disappointing for passengers and we wish to reassure that we’re working as exhausting as attainable to resolve the state of affairs.”

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Up to date at 09.55 EDT