1,350 flights affected after West London fire causes massive blackout and shuts operations at Heathrow Airport

Heathrow Airport

London’s Heathrow Airport was forced to shut down operations until midnight on March 21 after a massive fire at an electrical substation triggered a widespread power outage, disrupting flights and affecting thousands of homes in west London.

"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 2359 GMT on 21 March. Passengers are advised not to travel to the airport and should contact their airline for further information. We apologise for the inconvenience," the airport said in a post on X.

Eurocontrol, which handles air traffic control operations across Europe, stated on it's website that no flights were allowed to arrive at Heathrow airport and that diversion plans were in place for all incoming flights.

According to flight tracker FlightRadar24 an estimated 1,351 were expected to operated from Heathrow airport on March 21, which have been cancelled so far. The airport has not disclosed official flight cancellation number till the time of publishing. A record 83.9 million passengers passed through its terminals last year, according to the airport's latest data.

Globally, Heathrow was the second busiest international airport behind Dubai last year, according to travel data firm OAG, which calculated its ranking by seat capacity.

The London Fire Brigade said around 70 firefighters were tackling the blaze in the west of London, which caused a mass power outage at Heathrow, Europe's busiest and the world's fifth-busiest airport.

More than 16,300 homes lost power in a large-scale outage cause, London's energy supplier Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said on X. The power company has appealed to anyone who is medically dependent on electricity and who needs help to reach out immediately.

Emergency services were alerted to the incident at 2323 GMT on March 20. Footage circulating on social media showed massive flames and thick plumes of smoke rising from the site. A user on X cited Russian media sources on Telegram while sharing visuals of the blaze.

Huge orange flames and plumes of smoke could be seen shooting into the sky. Around 150 people were evacuated from nearby buildings and thousands of properties were without power.

Industry experts expect the airport's operations to disrupt tourism, travel and trade around the world, as flights will be cancelled or delayed due to aircraft being out of position. The fire forced planes to divert around the world.

Qantas Airways sent its flight from Perth to Paris, a United Airlines New York flight headed to Shannon, Ireland and a United Airlines flight from San Francisco was due to land in Washington, D.C. rather than London.

Similarly, Air India informed its passengers that two of its flights to London Heathrow have been diverted.

"London Heathrow-bound AI129 from Mumbai is returning to Mumbai; AI161 from Delhi is diverting to Frankfurt," Air India said in a statement.

Industry experts suggest that the disruption at Heathrow airport will impact flights throughout the world as airlines' carefully choreographed networks depend on airplanes and crews being in specific locations at specific times.

In 2024, after Dubai airport was shutdown for a day in April, around 200,000 were impacted and the backlog of passengers was cleared in a week. Flights to Dubai were disrupted at the Dubai International Airport (DXB) airport because of floods caused by 'supercharged' rainfall in April 2024.

"The big question is, 'What will airlines do to deal with the backlog of passengers?," said travel industry analyst Henry Harteveldt with Atmosphere Research Group. "It's going to be a chaotic couple of days."

A Heathrow spokesperson also said that there was no clarity on when power would be restored, and they expected significant disruption over the coming days.