Heathrow chaos could last for DAYS – it’s the airport’s biggest disruption in 15 years

BRITISH holidaymakers heading abroad this morning woke up to the news of a huge fire near Heathrow Airport, which has caused the cancellations of all flights today.

The fire – which broke out late last night at a nearby electrical station – means no flights will land or take off until midnight tonight.

And the airport's closure is likely to cause massive disruption in the coming days as more than 291,000 impacted passengers struggle to get to their destination.

The last time Heathrow was closed for such a significant period was after the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland which saw Heathrow and airports across the continent impacted for five days by the volcanic ash cloud.

To give an idea of the scale of disruption after just one day of closure like today, we can look back to December 2010 when a snowstorm saw the airport close.

More than 4,000 flights were cancelled over the following five days.

Today alone, 1,351 flights were due to take off and land at the UK’s largest airport, according to data from Cirium.

More than 120 flights were already in the air and on their way to Heathrow when the fire broke out.

Planes have been diverted to airports across the UK and Europe or have turned around and flown back to their departure point.

Those who managed to land at a UK airport should count themselves lucky as they can at least continue their journey back to Heathrow via road or rail.

Those who have landed at airports across Europe or are looking at cancelled flights are not in such a good position.

Scrabbling to find any seats on other flights due to take off over the weekend, those impacted today will effectively go to the bottom of the queue.

While there is of course no compensation due as airlines are not at fault they do have a duty of care to passengers – providing them with food and drink, hotels overnight if necessary and a way to contact loved ones.

The issue is going to be the sheer size of disruption.

Airlines are used to crises and have contingency plans but the scale of this will be a logistical nightmare for them.

British Airways will be the most impacted as it is responsible for 51 per cent of the flights taking off and landing at Heathrow today, followed by Virgin Atlantic and Lufthansa according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.

Anyone who has to shell out for food, hotels or calls while trying to deal with this if there airline does not should keep all receipts and keep any purchases reasonable – no 5* hotels or champagne.

Right now, the airport and airlines are in crisis mode.

Heathrow had contingency plans but the size of the fire at the substation was unprecedented and back up plans were thrown into chaos.

The latest update from the airport warns passengers to not travel to the airport under any circumstances, saying they expect significant disruption over the next few days.

And in the coming weeks, no doubt questions will be asked as to how the UK should be protecting critical infrastructure to prevent this ever happening again.

Here's everything you need to know about your rights and compensation if you flight has been cancelled today.