UK: Heathrow Airport Flights Resume After Fire Cut Power

Posted by Phil March 23, 2025

Heathrow Airport in the United Kingdom announced it was fully operational on Saturday, though passengers still experienced delays and cancellations as the air hub resumed operations.

This came a day after a fire at an electricity substation caused major travel disruptions.

The blaze reportedly cut power to the London airport, forcing its closure for most of Friday before some flights were able to arrive and depart later in the evening.

An aerial photograph taken on March 21, 2025 shows smoke billowing from a substation supplying power to Heathrow Airport amid efforts to douse the remainder of the flames after a fire broke out in Hayes, west London. Britain’s Heathrow airport, Europe’s busiest, was shut down early on March 21 for 24 hours after a major fire at an electricity substation cut power to the sprawling facility west of London, officials said. (Photo by AFP)

The shutdown impacted thousands of passengers worldwide and raised significant concerns about the reliability of one of Britain’s most vital infrastructure assets.

“We can confirm that Heathrow is open and fully operational today.

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“Teams across the airport continue to do everything they can to support passengers impacted by yesterday’s outage at an off-airport power substation,” an airport spokesperson said early on Saturday.

Flightradar24 reports that approximately 1,350 flights were impacted by Friday’s closure.

At the time of the announcement, around 120 planes bound for Heathrow were already in the air and had to be rerouted.

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