A huge blaze at a nearby electricity substation has caused flight hell for passenger travelling out of Heathrow Airport as the huge UK travel hub for many has been forced to close
Heathrow Airport has been forced to close all day (March 21) after a huge blaze.
More than 1,300 flights to and from Heathrow Airport are expected to be disrupted on Friday due to the closure as thousands of homes have been left without power.
The incident also saw 100 people evacuated after a transformer within the North Hyde electrical substation caught fire in west London.
The airport, which is supplied by the substation, said it was among those impacted by the power outage.
A Heathrow spokesperson said: “Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage across the airport due to a large fire at a nearby electrical substation. Whilst fire crews are responding to the incident, we do not have clarity on when power may be reliably restored.
“To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, we have no choice but to close Heathrow until 23h59 on 21 March 2025. We expect significant disruption over the coming days and passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens.
“We will provide an update when more information on the resumption of operations is available. We know this will be disappointing for passengers and we want to reassure that we are working as hard as possible to resolve the situation.”
Online flight tracking service FlightRadar24 said the closure would affect at least 1,351 flights to and from Heathrow.
There were a reported 120 flights to the airport already in the air when the closure was announced.
Heathrow is the UK’s largest airport, with more than 83.9 million passengers travelling through its terminals in 2024.
Gatwick Airport confirmed it had accepted seven diverted flights from locations including Singapore, Johannesburg, Lagos, Cape Town and Doha which were originally destined for Heathrow.
A Gatwick Airport spokesperson said: “We are aware of the situation at Heathrow Airport today and we are supporting by accepting diverted flights as required.
“Flights are operating from London Gatwick as normal today.”