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“A fire in an electrical substation that supplies the airport.”
It is the reason, as reported by the heatow airport authorities themselves On its website and in the official accounts of social networks as x. From the airport they recommend not to go to their facilities and get in touch with the airlines if you wanted to take a flight today to find a solution to it.
Heidi Alexander, Minister of Transportation, has also asked travelers who do not go to the facilities:
“I am receiving updates about the situation in development at Heathrow Airport. I am grateful for emergency services that are responding to the fire, and National Grid for working to restore energy from the airport and households. He urges passengers who do not travel to the airport and contact their airline”
The airport is the largest in Europe. The last 2024 closed the year with a traveler record. In total it is estimated that they went through its facilities 83.9 million people. A figure far higher than that registered in 2019, the best year until then with 80.9 million travelers.
According to BBCit is estimated that 1,351 flights can be canceled throughout the day. The consequences will be extended inside and outside our continent and has a special impact on our country. New York, Dubai, Doha and Los Angeles are the main journeys at the London airport. Dublin sneaks like the fourth city that has the most transfer with Heatrow and the sixth city and the second European is Madrid.
From AENA They have already reported that 54 flights with origin or destination within our country will be affected today. Journeys that are distributed throughout the following cities:
- Madrid: 29 flights
- Barcelona: 19 flights
- Malaga: 2 flights
- South Tenerife: 2 flights
- Valencia: 2 flights
The fire that affects the airport has had no implications exclusively in its facilities. According to BBC16,300 homes have also run out of electricity and 150 people have had to be evacuated. At the moment, the cuasas of the fire are unknown.
All connections affected by the Heatrow Fire. Source: Flightradar24
A logistics challenge
Sean Dilley, a journalist specialized in transport of the British media, points out that the fire has created a logistics challenge that will be extended throughout the world. Air traffic is calculated to the millimeter to always keep in mind how many flights are in the air and the capacity on land.
Close the largest airport in Europe It forces the network to assume that challenge. He explains that Gatwick (also in London) will absorb the greatest amount of flights that can but that its capacity is almost at the limit. The same goes for Stansted and Luton.
At the moment, in The Guardian They report that Stansted has not received requests to accept flights to Heatrow. A spokesman for it has indicated that: “London Stansted is currently operating normally, we have the capacity for a small number of deviations, but so far we have not received any request.”
Another option that is being valued, according to Dilley, is to divert flights to Manchester and relocate passengers by train. And to distribute long -distance flights on the network, make them terrric in Schipol (Amsterdam) or Frankfurt that are also among the largest airports on the continent.
In The Guardian They also focus on the problem of Fuel supply which can be generated in airports that accept the detour of some of the trips with original destination in Heatow.
And to current delays and cancellations, we must add those that can be generated in the next few days until all flights have been made. Although the airport opened normally tomorrow, Saturday, March 22, the delays are expected to accumulate.
Photo | Heatow Airport
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