Massive backlog as Heathrow Airport flights resume

Heathrow Airport has returned to normal operations after a major blaze broke out nearby which affected Aussie travellers’ travel plans. See the video.

Flights at London’s Heathrow Airport have resumed with a massive backlog to clear after a fire at a power station grounded planes at Europe’s busiest air hub, causing travel chaos for thousands of people around the world.

The electricity substation fire shut down the airport for most of the day, leading to the cancellation or diversion of hundreds of flights and raising questions about the infrastructure’s vulnerability.

The fire affected Qnatas passengers, after the airline’s Singapore-London and Perth-London services were diverted to Paris with buses arranged to take customers on to London.

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

While some services were impacted, customers will be contacted directly if their flight is affected.

Flights resume as Heathrow re-opens on March 22, 2025 in London. Picture: Getty

Planes landed on the tarmac at Heathrow Saturday AEDT, while British Airways said it had received clearance to depart eight long-haul flights from to cities including Johannesburg, Singapore and Riyadh.

Restrictions on overnight flights have also been temporarily lifted to help ease congestion, according to the UK’s transport department.

Heathrow Airport’s chief executive Thomas Woldbye said “tomorrow, we expect to be back in full operation”.

Police officers and firefighters near the scene where the fire broke out. Picture: AFP

Travellers headed to and from London had their travel plans thrown into disarray. Picture: AFP

He apologised and said the decision to close the airport came after a backup transformer failed, meaning the power supply had to be restructured.

“We have lost power equal to that of a mid-sized city,” he said, calling it an “incident of major severity”.

Planes from Heathrow serve around 80 countries, and around 1,350 flights had been due to land or take off from the airport’s five terminals on Friday, according to the Flightradar24 tracking website.

Firefighters at the scene of the blaze at the electrical substation that supplies power to London’s Heathrow Airport. Picture: X @fire_at_Vill / AFP

A fire at an electrical substation in Hayes is producing a significant amount of smoke and has cause the closure of Heathrow Airport. Picture: Picture London Fire Brigade

A fire at an electrical substation in Hayes that supplies Heathrow Airport with power forced the airport’s closure. Picture: London Fire Brigade

Around 230,000 passengers use Heathrow every day -- 83 million a year -- making it one of the world’s busiest airports.

Late on Friday the London Fire Brigade said the fire was “believed to be non-suspicious” and that an investigation would “focus on the electrical distribution equipment”.

It came after London’s Metropolitan Police said the force’s Counter Terrorism Command was leading the investigation into the fire given its impact.

“While there is currently no indication of foul play we retain an open mind at this time,” a spokesman said earlier.

The outage left 100,000 homes without power overnight. Electricity distribution network National Grid said power had been partially restored to Heathrow as well as to local residents affected.

“We need to understand what caused an incident of this magnitude at an electricity substation that is very close to a critical piece of national infrastructure,” said Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander.

Originally published as Massive backlog as Heathrow Airport flights resume