LONDON – World-famous Heathrow Airport of London has resumed operations for a limited number of flights following a significant fire at a nearby electrical substation
The fire that broke out at the North Hyde substation in Hayes, approximately 1.5 miles from the west London airport, led to widespread travel disruptions affecting around 1,000 flights besides disrupting power supply to over 60,000 households.
The fire that erupted on Thursday caused power outage triggering flight disruption for hundreds of thousands of passengers who were left stranded at the airport while some were even sent back. The authorities have ruled out any terrorist activity for the blaze though investigations for finding the root cause are underway.
Heathrow’s chief executive issued an apology to travellers, acknowledging the scale of the disruption, describing it as ‘as big as it gets’ for the airport; the official also conceded that they cannot guard themselves 100%.
The authorities initially announced that the airport would remain closed until midnight on Friday. However, by Friday evening, the situation began to improve, with several airlines, including British Airways (BA), Air Canada, and United Airlines, also announcing that they would restart scheduled flights; the data implies that British Airways has cancelled around 80 flights on Saturday.
Moreover, Virgin Atlantic stated on Saturday that Heathrow Airport has fully reopened, adding that the airline plans to run a near full schedule with limited cancellations today.
The severity of the situation cold be gauged from the fact that Heathrow Airport is one of the world’s busiest airports, recording 83.9 million passengers last year; the frequency of flights is such high that a plane lands or takes off around every 45 seconds.
The Department for Transport also confirmed that restrictions on overnight flights had been temporarily lifted in an effort to alleviate congestion at the airport.
Meanwhile, Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan has urged passengers to check with their airlines before heading Heathrow; he also thanked the emergency services for the efforts rendered in this regard.
