London’s Heathrow airport resumed full operations on Saturday, a day after a fire knocked out its power supply and shut Europe’s busiest airport, causing global travel chaos.
The travel industry was scrambling to reroute passengers and fix battered airline schedules after the huge fire at an electrical substation serving the world’s fifth-busiest airport.
Two British Airways flights were cancelled travelling between Heathrow and Dublin Airport in the morning and early afternoon of Saturday. However, 30 of the 32 flights scheduled between the two airports for Saturday are expected to operate as normal, said Kevin Cullinane, spokesman for DAA, representing Dublin and Cork Airports.
Passengers seeking updates regarding a specific flight should contact their airline directly, he said.
Aer Lingus said it is planning to operate a normal schedule to and from London Heathrow on Saturday and has provided information for passengers affected by Friday’s cancellations on how to apply for a refund.
Nearly 6,000 passengers scheduled to fly between Dublin Airport and Heathrow on Friday were affected by the cancellation of 34 flights between the two airports.
Six international flights originally scheduled to land in Heathrow on Friday were diverted to Shannon Airport from Toronto, Atlanta, Bridgetown Barbados, Boston, Orland and Newark.
All flights between Heathrow and Cork, Knock and Shannon airports on Friday were also cancelled.
A total of 38 Aer Lingus Heathrow services to and from Dublin, Shannon, Cork and Ireland West airports were cancelled on Friday, an Aer Lingus spokeswoman confirmed.
British Airways, which cancelled two of its flights between Dublin Airport and Heathrow on Saturday, said it faced “significant operational challenges” on Friday and anticipated about 85 per cent of its flights on Saturday would run as planned. “To recover an operation of our size is extremely complex, so our customers will likely experience delays,” said the airline.
British Airways advised customers to keep an eye on the status of their flight and travel to the airport as normal. If a flight is disrupted, passengers will be contacted as soon as possible, said the airline.
In Heathrow airport, teams continued to work across the airport on Saturday to support passengers affected by the outage, a Heathrow spokesperson said in a statement.
“We have hundreds of additional colleagues on hand in our terminals and we have added flights to today’s schedule to facilitate an extra 10,000 passengers travelling through the airport,” the spokesperson said.
The travel industry, facing the prospect of a financial hit costing tens of millions of pounds and a likely fight over who should pay, questioned how such crucial infrastructure could fail without backup.
“It is a clear planning failure by the airport,” said Willie Walsh, head of global airlines body International Air Transport Association, who, as former head of British Airways, has for years been a fierce critic of the crowded hub.
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.
Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye said he expected the airport to be back “in full operation” on Saturday.
Asked who would pay for the disruption, he said there were “procedures in place”, adding “we don’t have liabilities in place for incidents like this”.
Virgin Atlantic said it expected to operate “a near full schedule” with limited cancellations on Saturday but that the situation remains dynamic and all flights would be kept under continuous review.
Airlines including JetBlue, American Airlines, Air Canada, Air India, Delta Air Lines, Qantas, United Airlines, British Airways and Virgin were diverted or returned to their origin airports in the wake of the closure, according to data from flight analytics firm Cirium.
Shares in many airlines fell on Friday.
Aviation experts said the last time European airports experienced disruption on such a large scale was the 2010 Icelandic volcanic ash cloud that grounded some 100,000 flights.
They warned that some passengers forced to land in Europe may have to stay in transit lounges if they lack the paperwork to leave the airport.
Prices at hotels around Heathrow jumped, with booking sites offering rooms for £500 (€596), roughly five times the normal price levels.
Police said after an initial assessment they are not treating the incident at the power substation as suspicious, although inquiries remained ongoing. London Fire Brigade said its investigations would focus on the electrical distribution equipment. – Additional reporting Reuters
