London: The closure of London’s Heathrow Airport is expected to disrupt global aviation for days and incur financial losses amounting to tens of millions of dollars. Experts are questioning why more robust contingency measures were not in place at the world’s fifth-largest airport.
The scale of disruption—unparalleled since the Icelandic ash cloud crisis of 2010—has shocked industry specialists. A fire at a nearby electrical substation crippled Heathrow’s power supply, including its backup system, leading to a complete shutdown.
“It is a clear planning failure by the airport,” said Willie Walsh, head of the International Air Transport Association (IATA). As the former CEO of British Airways, Walsh has long been a critic of Heathrow’s infrastructure constraints.
According to data firm OAG, Heathrow is Europe’s busiest airport by passenger volume. On Friday, all 1,332 scheduled flights were canceled, affecting thousands of travelers. The fire, reported at 2300 GMT on Thursday, forced incoming flights to divert to airports across the UK and Europe, while some long-haul flights returned to their points of origin.
The incident has raised fresh scrutiny over Heathrow’s operational resilience. Less than a year ago, the airport had described itself as “a leader in airfield resilience” in a filing to Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). However, experts have highlighted potential weaknesses in its backup power systems.
IMPACT AND COSTS
Travel consultant Paul Charles estimated that Heathrow’s closure could cost the aviation sector around £20 million ($26 million) per day, with no certainty that the airport would resume operations on Saturday. “Heathrow is such a vital piece of the UK’s infrastructure that it should have fail-safe systems,” he emphasized.
International risk management consultant Tony Cox echoed similar concerns. “I can’t remember a piece of critical infrastructure being wholly shut down for at least a day because of a fire. I can’t think of anything comparable.”
The incident has also underscored vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure, especially as security concerns mount across Europe. While British police have launched an investigation, counter-terrorism officials indicated that there is no immediate evidence of foul play in the substation fire.
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Energy Minister Ed Miliband stated that the blaze disabled Heathrow’s backup power system, and engineers are working to introduce an alternative power source. Like most major airports, Heathrow has an operational resilience plan designed to mitigate risks, but it remains unclear whether backup power was previously flagged as a significant vulnerability.
In 2023, Heathrow outlined a new energy strategy in its annual report, pledging to integrate more renewable energy “whilst protecting the resilience of our energy network.” However, neither Heathrow nor the CAA has provided immediate comments regarding contingency planning in light of this incident.
CLEARING THE BACKLOG
The shutdown’s ripple effects are expected to persist for days, stranding passengers and complicating airline schedules as carriers work to reposition aircraft and crews.
British Airways has previously warned that Heathrow’s capacity limitations can exacerbate disruptions, making recovery efforts even more challenging. “There will be impact running on several days because once aircraft are grounded somewhere away from an operation, they are stuck there with the crews operating the flights,” said aviation consultant and network planning expert John Strickland.
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Britain’s airspace is among the busiest in Europe, and technical failures have previously raised concerns. In 2023, a failure in Britain’s air traffic control system (NATS) resulted in losses exceeding £100 million, according to the CAA.
Tim Green, head of the electrical and electronic engineering department at Imperial College London, was among those directly affected. His UK-bound flight was forced to return to North Carolina on Friday. Speaking to Reuters, Green described the complex energy demands of an airport that consumed 271,080 MWh of grid electricity in 2023.
“There’s a lot going on at an airport,” he explained. Heathrow must power not only its terminals, shops, and restaurants but also critical safety systems such as radars, navigation equipment, and landing
