London’s Heathrow Airport, one of the busiest air travel hubs in the world, has been forced to close for an entire day after a fire tore through a nearby electrical substation, triggering a large-scale power outage that brought operations to a halt.
Airport officials confirmed to Euronews that the closure would remain in effect until midnight on Friday.
“To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, we have no choice but to close Heathrow,” the airport said in a statement. Officials warned of “significant disruption” in the days to come.
The fire broke out Thursday night in west London and caused widespread outages in the area and left over 16,300 homes without power.
It also resulted in the disruption or cancellation of at least 1,350 flights, according to flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.
Chaos in the Skies and On the Ground
As the scale of the incident became clear, Heathrow advised passengers not to travel to the airport “under any circumstances.”
Airlines scrambled to adjust schedules, with several international carriers reporting mid-air diversions, cancelled arrivals, and stranded aircraft.
Among the hardest hit were United Airlines, which cancelled multiple flights from the U.S., and Qantas, British Airways, and Virgin Atlantic, all of which reported widespread disruption due to aircraft and crew displacement.
Some transatlantic flights en route to Heathrow were forced to turn back mid-air to their points of origin.
The London Fire Brigade said it was called to the scene at 10:23 p.m. CET on Thursday, where 10 fire engines and around 70 firefighters battled the flames at the substation.
Dramatic video footage posted online showed large plumes of smoke and towering flames rising from the facility.
While the exact cause of the fire is still under investigation, it is known that a transformer caught fire, sparking the cascade of electrical failures that crippled Heathrow’s operations.
National Grid UK confirmed the fire had damaged critical infrastructure, adding that it is “working at speed to restore power supplies as quickly as possible.”
Ripple Effects Across the Travel Network
The impact of Heathrow’s closure is being felt far beyond the UK. Flight delays and cancellations are expected to mount globally as aircraft, crew, and ground services are thrown into disarray.
Several flights were rerouted to alternative UK airports, adding pressure to hubs like Gatwick, Stansted, and Manchester, where airlines are now attempting to handle displaced passengers.
The disruption comes at a time of already elevated air travel demand, raising concerns of a logistical domino effect that could spill into the weekend.
Heathrow has not issued a forecast for when operations might fully resume on Saturday, though the airport stressed it is working “in coordination with emergency services and energy providers” to assess readiness.
