British Airways, whose main center is Heathrow, said it expected about 85% of its programming to continue on Saturday, and the executive -Chefe Sean Doyle warned of a “huge impact on all our clients flying with us in the coming days.”
The airport, the most important fifth in the world, should deal with 1,351 flights on Friday, flying to 291,000 passengers. But the fire in a nearby electrical substation forced planes to be diverted to other airports and many long -haul flights returned to their starting point.
Britain’s Ministry of Energy said on Saturday that it commissioned the national energy system operator to perform an urgent investigation into the interruption that raised questions about the resilience of the country’s critical infrastructure.
Aviation experts said that the last time European airports suffered interruptions on such a large scale was the cloud of 2010 islanded volcanic ashes that founded about 100,000 flights.
“It was absolutely insane,” said Amber Roden, a US citizen marrying in three days after several of his relatives had their flights canceled.
Two relatives that were halfway to Atlanta London had to turn around and return, she said. Two others will not arrive in the United Kingdom until the wedding day, which she has been planning for two years.
The vast majority of flights scheduled in the morning and early afternoon set off successfully on Saturday, with some delays and cancellations, showed the Heathrow matches website.
“We do not expect any large amounts of flights to be canceled or delayed,” Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye told BBC Radio.
The airport has hundreds of additional employees available to facilitate 10,000 extra passengers traveling around the airport, a -state -of -the -art said.
But the airlines were still dealing with interrupted times and tens of thousands of passengers whose trips were interrupted.
Virgin Atlantic said on Saturday that he planned to perform an almost full schedule with limited cancellations. Air India said it restarted the flights of and to Heathrow and expected to operate “according to the schedule.”
Non -suspicious fire
Several passengers traveling to Heathrow of Paddington London station were still nervous.
“I just hope that when I get there, I can really go.” Said University professor Melissa Graboyes, who said she was repeatedly checking the status of her flight to Toronto.
Police said after an initial assessment, they were not treating the incident as a suspect, although the investigations remained in progress. The London Fire Brigade said its investigations would focus on the electrical distribution equipment.
The travel sector, facing the prospect of a financial hit costing tens of millions of pounds and a likely fight against who should pay, questioned how this crucial infrastructure could fail without backup.
“It’s a clear airport planning flaw,” said Willie Walsh, the head of the Global Airlines body, which, as an ex -chief of British Airways, has been a fierce center critic for years.
Heathrow and London’s other major airports have been hit by other interruptions in recent years, more recently by an automated gate failure and an air traffic system collapse, both in 2023.
