London’s Heathrow Airport closes after major fire nearby, sparking global travel chaos
London’s Heathrow Airport closed on Friday after a fire at a nearby electrical substation caused a power outage, airport officials said.
“Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage across the airport … Whilst fire crews are responding to the incident, we do not have clarity on when power may be reliably restored,” a Heathrow spokesperson said.
“We expect significant disruption over the coming days and passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens,” the spokesperson said.
A post on Heathrow Airport’s X account said the airport will be closed until 11.59 p.m. local time on Friday.
Ed Miliband, U.K. energy minister, described the fire as “catastrophic,” adding that the airport’s back-up generator had been affected by the blaze, according to Reuters.
Speaking to current affairs TV show “Good Morning Britain,” Miliband said the National Grid had told him the scale of the fire was unprecedented. “National Grid, in their conversation with me this morning, said it’s like a fire they’ve never, kind of, quite seen anything like the scale of what happened before,” according to a post by the program on X.
He said the National Grid was trying to use another back-up system to restore power to the airport.
Miliband said the cause of the fire was not yet known, but that foul play was not suspected.
Power cuts also affected about 16,000 homes around the airport. As of 8 a.m. GMT, electrical supply was restored to all but around 4,900, according to the U.K. energy company Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks.
Canceled and diverted flights
The closure of Europe’s busiest airport disrupted more than 120 flights that were in the air and forced to divert or return to their originating airports, according to flight-tracking site Flightradar24. The company said 679 flights are scheduled to land, and 678 flights are scheduled to take off, from Heathrow today.
Some 145,000 passengers could be affected by the closure, according to aviation-data firm Cirium.
A departure board shows a canceled Air Portugal flight from Singapore Changi Airport to London Heathrow Airport on March 21, 2025.
Roslan Rahman | Afp | Getty Images
United Airlines said seven of its flights had been diverted or returned to their originating airports due to the closure, adding that all flights to London Heathrow on Friday had been canceled.
“We are working with our customers to offer alternative travel options,” the carrier said in a statement.
Emirates, Air India, SAS and Aer Lingus canceled all flights to and from Heathrow on Friday, according to Reuters. Other flights are being diverted to London Gatwick Airport, according to NBC News.
Virgin Atlantic said it’s expecting multiple flight cancellations at Heathrow on Friday.
“We kindly ask customers not to call our contact centre due to high call volumes at this time and instead to check your flight status,” the airline said on its website. “If your flight is cancelled, we will email with your rebooking details.”
As the fire appears to be outside of airlines’ control, flight compensation may not be payable, according to a note issued by Citi on Friday. Food and water, and “possibly” hotel accommodation may need to be provided to travelers by airlines, the bank added.
‘It makes Heathrow look quite vulnerable’
Heathrow Airport has an estimated 1,300 take-offs and landings at the airport per day, according to its website. It handled a record 83.9 million passengers last year — a nearly 6% increase from 2023.
Speaking to “Good Morning Britain,” Miliband said on Friday: “We’ve got to understand why this happened, and we’ve got to work out what the lessons are for the resilience of our infrastructure.”
He said the National Grid is looking at whether there is “sufficient resilience” in place at the airport, given that the fire also affected a backup generator.
“It makes Heathrow look quite vulnerable. And therefore, we’ve got to learn lessons … about not just Heathrow, but how we protect our major infrastructure,” Miliband said.
‘Very wide’ implications
Anita Mendiratta, a travel and tourism advisor and founder of consultancy AM&A, described the implications of the fire and closure of the airport as “very wide.”
“What we also need to take into account is over and above passenger traffic, over 4,000 tons of cargo go through Heathrow every single day,” she told CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe.
More than 1.4 million tonnes of cargo flew in and out of Heathrow in 2023, according to a post on the airport’s website, with 90% of goods transported in the hold of passenger aircraft.
Airport officials said they will update travelers “when more information on the resumption of operations is available.”
Travelers can check Heathrow Airport’s website or social media platforms, including X.
