More than 200,000 passengers have had their flights to or from Heathrow Airport cancelled after it was closed on Friday (March 21) due to a fire at a nearby electrical substation.
Thousands of homes have been left without power and more than 100 people were 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.
Passengers are being warned to expect disruption for several days, and many planes and flight crews are in the wrong location.
Due to a fire at an electrical substation supplying the airport, Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage.
— Heathrow Airport (@HeathrowAirport) March 21, 2025
To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, Heathrow will be closed until 23h59 on 21 March.
Passengers are advised not to travel to the airport… pic.twitter.com/7SWNJP8ojd
Online flight tracking service Flightradar24 said the closure would affect more than 1,350 flights to and from Heathrow on Friday.
This includes 679 scheduled to land and 678 due to take off from the airport.
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.
What happens if you miss your flight due to airport delays?
“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.”
What to do if you're flying from Heathrow Airport this week
Heathrow Airport will be closed until 11.59pm on Friday (March 21).
Passengers are being advised not to travel to Heathrow "until further notice" and instead should contact the airline they are supposed to be travelling with for more details.
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You can find contact details for each airline via the Heathrow Airport website (a link to which can be found above).
The Heathrow Airport website adds: "We apologise for the inconvenience."
You can keep up to date with all the latest updates from Heathrow Airport via its X (formerly Twitter) page.
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