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The members of the British Airways crew reach Terminal 5 in Heathrow on March 21, 2025 in London, England.
Peter Nicholls | Getty images
London Heathrow Airport reopened on Saturday, but travelers are warned about significant delays as airlines fight to resume flights and return to stranded passengers.
The most busy airport in Europe was Closed for most Friday After a blackout after a fire in a nearby electrical substation, which causes more than 800 flights to be canceled inside and outside the airport, according to the FlightAware flight monitoring site.
However, the first flight took off from the airport at the time of Friday night, and the airport Departure Board Indicates that most flights will be executed as scheduled on Saturday.
“The flights have resumed in Heathrow after yesterday’s blackout,” said the airport on its website on Saturday.
“If you must travel today, we advise you to still Contact your airline For the latest flight information before going to the airport. We apologize for the interruption and appreciate your patience while operations return to normal. “
National Grid said on Saturday that the energy supply had been restored to all customers, including Heathrow, allowing operations to resume.
“Now we are implementing measures to help further improve the resilience levels of our network,” said the public services company in a statement.
“We deeply regret the interruption caused and continue working closely with the government, Heathrow and the Police to understand the cause of the incident.”
The London Metropolitan Police said that although there were no signs of dirty play, “the anti -terrorism division would now lead the fire on the fire.
“Given the location of the substation and the impact that this incident has had on the critical national infrastructure, the command against the terrorism of the MET now leads the investigations,” the force said in a Publish in X.
‘Expect delays’
The airlines rush to resume flights and take thousands of passengers stranded to their final destinations.
British airways It was the airline most affected by the incident, with more than half of its canceled Friday. He said he hopes to execute most of his Heathrow schedule on Saturday, but that customers must expect delays.
Land equipment loads loading and supplies in airlines from airlines such as Lufthansa Group, Emirates, Austrian Airlines and British Airways, while they are parked at the Tom Bradley International Terminal (Tbit) at the Los Angeles International Airport (Lax) in the second, California, on September 11, 2023.
Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty images
“We anticipate that about 85% of our Heathrow calendar on Saturday, March 22 will be executed as planned, but recovering an operation of our size is extremely complex, so our clients will probably experience delays,” said the airline in a statement on Saturday.
“We are advising customers traveling to the airport in a normal way, unless otherwise indicated. If your flight will be interrupted, we will contact you as soon as possible to let you know what you should do.”
He added that he was offering “flexible options” that allowed them to travel from Heathrow this weekend to reserve a different date for free.
Heathrow Airport has an estimate of 1,300 take -offs and lands at the airport per day, according to its website. He handled a record 83.9 million passengers Last year: an increase of almost 6% of 2023.
The incident has asked questions about the dependence of the airport of a single energy source.
Willie Walsh -Ex CEO from the owner of British Airways IAG And now the IATA CEO, a group of the airline industry, criticized Heathrow airport for its “total planning failure” and questioned who would cover the costs of the resulting interruptions.
“We must find a fairer assignment of passenger attention costs that the airlines alone collecting the tab when infrastructure fails,” he said. “Until that happens, Heathrow has very few incentives to improve.”
