More than 1,300 flights to and from Heathrow airport affecting 200,000 passengers will be disrupted on Friday due to the closure of the airport following a fire at a nearby electrical substation.
The UK government was unable to confirm at midday on Friday that the airport would be back up and running by Saturday.
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.
Thousands of Irish passengers are likely to be affected by the closure with at least 10 flights from Dublin to the hub airport facing disruption.
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The airport, which is supplied by the substation, said it was among those impacted by the power outage.
Counter-terrorism police officers are leading the investigation into the cause of the fire.
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said there is “currently no indication of foul play” but “we retain an open mind at this time”.
The force said its Counter Terrorism Command would lead inquiries given the impact of the fire “on critical national infrastructure”.
Online flight tracking service FlightRadar24 said the closure would affect at least 1,351 flights to and from Heathrow.
It said 120 flights to the airport were in the air when the closure was announced.
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Heathrow is the UK’s largest airport, with more than 83.9 million passengers travelling through its terminals in 2024.
Downing Street would not say whether it is confident Heathrow Airport will be fully reopened by Saturday.
Asked whether this would be the case, a No 10 spokesman said: “Well, it’s clearly a fast-moving situation.”
He added: “The fire is still burning and I’m aware that the airport has announced a complete closure until midnight tonight as a result of the situation.
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“It will be for emergency services and Heathrow to update on timescales for when this situation will be resolved. We do expect there will be significant direct disruption in the hours and days ahead.”
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.
“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.”
[ Heathrow airport closed: Are you a passenger affected by the disruption?Opens in new window ]
Online tracking services showed flights being diverted to Gatwick, Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris and Ireland’s Shannon Airport.
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said on X there was a large-scale power outage in Hayes, Hounslow and the surrounding areas impacting more than 16,300 homes.
A National Grid spokesperson said the fire had damaged equipment and they “working at speed to restore power supplies as quickly as possible”.
London Fire Brigade said the fire at Nestles Avenue in Hayes was “under control”.
About 150 people have been evacuated from surrounding properties and a 200m cordon has been put in place as a precaution.
Firefighters led 29 people from surrounding properties to safety.
Footage posted to social media showed huge flames and large plumes of smoke coming from the facility.
The fire brigade said nearly 200 calls had been received in relation to the incident with crews from Hayes, Heathrow, Hillingdon, Southall and surrounding areas on the scene.
Emergency services were called to the scene at 11.23pm on Thursday. The cause of the fire is yet to be determined. British energy secretary Ed Miliband said there was no suggestion of foul play. – PA
