Europe’s busiest airport, London Heathrow, is welcoming flights once again after a major power outage caused the hub to shut down on Friday.
[UPDATED Sunday, 23 March 2025]
“We’re operating a full schedule again today, with over 1,300 flights planned,” the airport stated on social media late Sunday [AEST].
“Thank you for your patience following Friday’s closure due to an off-site power substation fire. Yesterday [Saturday], we welcomed 250,000+ passengers, with punctual departures and security queues under five minutes for nearly all.
“Teams across the airport continue to do everything they can to support passengers.”
What happened?
Heathrow’s shutdown impacted hundreds of inbound and outbound flights at the UK’s biggest gateway as well as the travel plans of tens of thousands of passengers.
“Due to a fire at an electrical substation supplying the airport, Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage. To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, Heathrow will be closed until 23h59 on 21 March,” the airport said on Friday.
Heathrow also advised passengers not to travel to the airport, apologising for the “inconvenience”.
In addition, the hub warned of “significant disruption” over the next few days, the BBC reported.
According to The Guardian, travel experts said Friday that the disruption would be felt well beyond Heathrow, with dozens of airlines forced to alter schedules as a consequence of the shutdown.
“The other question is, ‘What will airlines do to deal with the backlog of passengers?’” Atmosphere Research Group travel industry analyst Henry Harteveldt said.
On X, flight tracking website Flightradar24 said at least 1,351 flights to/from London Heathrow would be impacted by the closure.
“That doesn’t include any flights that might be cancelled or delayed due to aircraft being out of position,” it added.
Diversions away from Heathrow (and origin returns) so far:
LGW 5 AMS 3 CDG 2 IAD 2 JFK 2 ORD 2 SNN 2 BGR 1 BHX 1 BOS 1 CLT 1 DEN 1 DFW 1 EWR 1 HEL 1 LAX 1 MAD 1 MBJ 1 MIA 1 YYR 1
Any aircraft facing west in this image is… pic.twitter.com/2pXQZZ75At
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) March 21, 2025
According to the website, flights were being diverted to other airports, including Qantas’ Perth-London service being sent to Paris.
“Our Singapore-London and Perth-London services were diverted to Paris today, with buses arranged to take customers on to London,” a Qantas spokesperson said on Friday.
“Our teams are working hard to support impacted customers and we thank them for their patience.”
The airline said that its QF1 and QF9 services departing Sydney and Perth on Friday (local times) were scheduled to operate as normal to London, while Friday’s QF10 service (London-Perth) was cancelled, with customers to be reaccommodated on other flights.
In February, London Heathrow reported record passenger numbers for 2024, with the gateway welcoming 83.9 million passengers.
Meanwhile, flights to the UK could almost double in the next decade, with Heathrow confirming multi-million-pound terminal expansion plans and a new runway timeline.
