‘Some flights’ to resume at Heathrow airport after a fire caused a major power outage

There was expected to be a significant knock-on effect as a result of Friday’s chaos at London’s busiest airport, which could see hundreds more impacted over the weekend.

London’s Heathrow Airport said it would resume “some flights” later on Friday, local time, after a fire at a nearby electricity substation plunged one of the world’s busiest traveller hubs into chaos and forced airlines to scramble to divert planes.

The airport was expected to suffer significant disruption for days, but was planning to resume some flights on Friday evening (Saturday morning Australian time).

“We’re now safely able to begin some flights later today. Our first flights will be repatriation flights and relocating aircraft,” an airport spokesperson said in a statement.

While there was “currently no indication of foul play”, counter-terrorism police will lead an investigation into the fire given the “impact this incident has had on critical national infrastructure”.

“All possible lines of enquiry are being pursued,” London’s Metropolitan Police said.

Earlier, Qantas diverted its flagship QF1 flight from Sydney to London to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris while flight QF9 from Perth was also diverted to Paris.

A Qantas spokeswoman said buses were arranged to take customers on to London.

Return flights QF10 to Perth and QF2 to Sydney were cancelled, with Qantas re-accommodating customers on other flights.

“Our teams are working hard to support impacted customers and we thank them for their patience,” she said.

More than 1,351 flights were scheduled to arrive or depart from Heathrow on Friday, according to Flightradar24.

Flights have been diverted away from Europe’s busiest airport.

The London Fire Brigade warned against travel to the airport “in any circumstances” until it reopened, describing the fire as “significant”.

“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,” said assistant commissioner Pat Goulbourne said earlier in the day.

“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.”

He said the fire had involved a “transformer comprising of 25,000 litres of cooling oil fully alight” posing a hazard due to the substation’s “still live high voltage equipment”.

Around 230,000 passengers a day pass through Heathrow Airport, which typically handles more than 80 million travellers a year.

Data compiled by aviation analytics firm Cirium estimated up to 145,000 people would be impacted by the closure based on the daily total of scheduled flights and capacity.

British Airways has 333 flights scheduled in and out of Heathrow on Friday, Virgin Atlantic 31 and Lufthansa 21.

With more than 100 flights in the air when the closure was announced, airlines scrambled to organise diversions with some returning to the US and Canada, and others heading to Gatwick, Schiphol in Amsterdam and Helsinki in Finland.

Additional reporting: AFP