London: Hundreds of thousands of air passengers from across the world will be affected due to closure of London’s Heathrow airport till 11.59 pm (GMT) on Friday. The airport has been closed down due to a major power outage, authorities said.
Currently, British Airways and Air India operate 56 flights a week between Heathrow and Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad. This will go up to 63 from April this year with British Airways announcing a daily flight from Delhi and London. By the end of the year, the number of weekly flights between Indian airports and Heathrow is likely to go up to 70.
The power outage took place due to a major fire at a power sub-station near the airport. Videos doing the rounds on social media, showed flames engulfing a building.
Heathrow is one of the busiest airports in the world, handling about 1,300 flights and catering to nearly 2,30,000 passengers daily. Flights getting diverted at such short notice is likely to cause severe inconvenience to people, particularly those travelling on business.
The incident was reported early on Friday when emergency services responded to reports of a fire at the substation supplying power to the airport. Efforts to contain the blaze disrupted electricity to critical systems, forcing a full shutdown of operations. Flights have been canceled or diverted, and terminals sit eerily quiet as staff work to manage the fallout. The airport has warned that the disruption could ripple into the weekend.
Heathrow officials are collaborating with energy providers to restore power, but no firm timeline beyond the 11:59 PM deadline has been confirmed. For now, passengers face uncertainty, with airlines scrambling to rebook flights and manage stranded travelers.
To add to the chaos, several roads around the airport will remain closed from 9 pm (GMT) on Friday till 6 am (GMT) on Monday for maintenance work. This overlap has sparked fears of gridlock around West London, further isolating the airport from road access. Travelers have been advised to explore alternative routes or delay journeys entirely.