A fire at an electrical substation in Hayes has left more than 4,900 homes without power and 150 people were evacuated from surrounding properties, some of which will be people who work at London Heathrow Airport, the world’s second busiest airport. This fire has had a significant impact, and it has been reported that there is no electricity to the airport.
A Heathrow spokesperson said its terminals had to be shut as they “do not have clarity on when power may be reliably restored“. It has been announced that the Airport will be closed all day on Friday 21st March 2025. At least 1,351 flights to and from LHR will be affected. Looking at the various news feeds, the immediate impacts are as BIFA would expect – with flights in the air being diverted, not all to UK airports, but some to major hubs such as Amsterdam and Frankfurt. Flights on the ground have been cancelled. UK airports, such as London Gatwick, have advised that they will assist by accepting diverted flights where possible, but it should be remembered that these are often operating at near full capacity levels already. This limits spare capacity to assist in an emergency such as this.
Heathrow warns of “significant disruption” over the coming days and tells passengers not to travel to the airport “under any circumstances” until it reopens.
As expected, most reporting has focused on the immediate impact on flights, terminals and passengers. Regrettably, cargo has been largely overlooked, and the impact will be significant on both import and export movements.
Supply chains work based on a consistent flow of goods and this has been severely interrupted – for exports the immediate concern will be that airline sheds will fill up rapidly and be unable to accept fresh freight deliveries which will then affect other parties. For imports, freight will not arrive at or be diverted from its original final destination.
It is anticipated that there will be longer-term disruption: flights and crew will often be in the wrong geographical location. It will take time to fully restore these flight schedules to full operation. For freight operators, the additional concern is that most cargo is carried in the belly hold of passenger aircraft and when flights to and from LHR are restored there will be a considerable influx in demand by passengers for seats to continue their journeys. Potentially this will restrict the capacity to move cargo.
It is clear that this incident will have a significant impact on all movements via LHR and it is noteworthy that senior government figures have been involved at an early stage. In certain ways, the best source of information will be reputable new channels. BIFA has already reached out to the partner organisations at LHR to open up lines of communication in order to obtain information for its Members, who should consider a similar approach with their supply chain partners.
Communication will probably be difficult as it has already been indicated to the Association that every possible disaster recovery group and contingency plan is being put into action – the priority is the physical effort to get the airport working as quickly as possible.
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