Heathrow Airport will remain shut until midnight after a large fire at a nearby electricity substation, disrupting travel for tens of thousands of passengers.
The fire is now under control, but Heathrow’s backup power supply was also affected. Heathrow’s closure is expected to affect more than 1,300 flights in the coming days, and disruption will be felt in travel hubs across the world.
An airline analytics firm estimated that “upwards of 145,000” passengers could be impacted; an aviation expert told CNN the airline industry could lose hundreds of billions of dollars.
Around 120 flights were bound for Heathrow when the airport announced it would be closing for the day. More than 100 planes were diverted or canceled by midday local time on Friday, according to flight-tracking websites. Heathrow had been expecting arrivals from Sydney, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Johannesburg, New York, Miami and many other cities on Friday.
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Planes usually begin landing and taking off at around 5am after the regular overnight quiet period.
Data from the tracking site also showed Amsterdam took the most diversions at seven, while Gatwick, Frankfurt and Shannon all took six flights each.
Passengers have been warned to stay away from the airport and all trains to Heathrow have been suspended. All customers booked to travel to or from Heathrow between Friday and Sunday will have the option to rebook for free to a later travel date, according to the airline.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband told Sky News “it was too early to know” what caused the “catastrophic fire”.
Counter-terror police are probing the cause of the fire, authorities said, given its impact on “critical national infastructure.”
The London’s counter-terrorism police are leading the investigation into the fire at the electrical substation near Heathrow, “given the impact this incident has had on critical national infrastructure.”
The large blaze near Heathrow will be a “prolonged incident” with disruption for residents in the area expected to increase, according to the London Fire Brigade.
“We expect significant disruption over the coming days and passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens,” Heathrow said in a statement.
Heathrow is one of the world’s busiest airports and had a record 83.9 million passengers last year, with a plane landing or taking off around every 45 seconds.
