Global travel in chaos as UK’s Heathrow airport shuts amid outage

United Kingdom’s Heathrow Airport closed until midnight on Friday due to a power outage, throwing the plans of tens of thousands of travellers into chaos.

London’s main airport, which is Europe’s busiest gateway, said on Friday that it had suffered a “significant” power failure due to a fire at an electrical substation supplying the facility.

“To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, Heathrow will be closed until 23h59 on 21 March,” Heathrow Airport said in a post on X.

“Passengers are advised not to travel to the airport and should contact their airline for further information. We apologise for the inconvenience.”

Flight tracking website FlightRadar24 said the shutdown would affect “at least” 1,351 flights.

According to FlightRadar24, 120 aircraft were in the air and set to be diverted to alternate airports or returned to their origin at the time of the announcement.

“We’re trying to stop passengers from travelling to the airport, and then work with airline partners on flights that are delayed, diverted, or cancelled,” a Heathrow spokesperson told Al Jazeera.

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“They [passengers] can reach out to airline partners to work on rebooking.”

Heathrow is one of the most globally connected airports and regularly ranks among the top five busiest gateways worldwide.

The airport serves more than 200 destinations in nearly 90 different countries and territories, and last year handled nearly 84 million passengers, the largest number on record, Al Jazeera states.

The London Fire Brigade said that it had deployed 10 engines and about 70 firefighters to a fire at an electrical substation near the airport in Hayes, west London.

“This is a highly visible and significant incident, and our firefighters are working tirelessly in challenging conditions to bring the fire under control as swiftly as possible,” Assistant Commissioner Pat Goulbourne said in a statement.

“The fire has caused a power outage affecting a large number of homes and local businesses, and we are working closely with our partners to minimise disruption. Firefighters have led 29 people to safety from neighbouring properties, and as a precaution, a 200-metre cordon has been established, with around 150 people evacuated.”

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers. She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay. She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos. As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender. She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies. Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category. She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category. She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations. Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.