Heathrow: Flights resume after closure causes global turmoil

Flights at Britain's Heathrow airport resumed late on Friday after a fire knocked out its power supply and shut Europe's busiest airport for the day, stranding many passengers and causing travel turmoil worldwide.

Heathrow said its teams worked tirelessly to reopen the world's fifth-busiest airport after it was forced to close entirely following a huge fire that engulfed a nearby substation on Thursday night, with travellers told to stay away.

It was gathered that the airport had been due to handle 1,351 flights on Friday, flying up to 291,000 passengers, but planes were diverted to other airports in Britain and across Europe, while many long-haul flights returned to their point of departure.

According to Heathrow, there would be a limited number of flights on Friday, mostly focused on relocating aircraft and bringing planes into London.

“Tomorrow morning, we expect to be back in full operation, to 100% operation as a normal day.

“What I'd like to do is to apologise to the many people who have had their travel affected … we are very sorry about all the inconvenience,” Heathrow chief executive, Thomas Woldbye said.

According to the police, after an initial assessment they were not treating the incident as suspicious, although enquiries remained ongoing.

London Fire Brigade said its investigations would focus on the electrical distribution equipment.

The closure not only caused misery for travellers but provoked anger from airlines, which questioned how such crucial infrastructure could fail.

The industry is now facing the prospect of a financial hit costing tens of millions of pounds, and a likely fight over who should pay.

Woldbye said back-up systems and procedures had worked as they should.

“This power supply is a bit of a weak point. But of course contingencies of certain sizes we cannot guard ourselves against 100% and this is one of them,” he added.