Zürcher Nachrichten - Heathrow Airport 'fully operational' after fire shutdown

EUR -
AED 4.190162
AFN 82.135427
ALL 99.363241
AMD 444.283963
ANG 2.055997
AOA 1046.652663
ARS 1343.832124
AUD 1.77551
AWG 2.056237
AZN 1.932993
BAM 1.966166
BBD 2.303947
BDT 138.639709
BGN 1.953904
BHD 0.429896
BIF 3345.876246
BMD 1.140769
BND 1.499278
BOB 7.901484
BRL 6.450363
BSD 1.141116
BTN 96.978582
BWP 15.642193
BYN 3.734222
BYR 22359.07754
BZD 2.292054
CAD 1.578077
CDF 3284.275012
CHF 0.937102
CLF 0.028062
CLP 1076.874961
CNY 8.321893
CNH 8.311753
COP 4810.623979
CRC 576.941701
CUC 1.140769
CUP 30.230385
CVE 110.5978
CZK 24.954899
DJF 202.737766
DKK 7.465457
DOP 67.305622
DZD 151.027578
EGP 58.001728
ERN 17.111539
ETB 149.550648
FJD 2.603406
FKP 0.856819
GBP 0.849411
GEL 3.125667
GGP 0.856819
GHS 17.465125
GIP 0.856819
GMD 80.994465
GNF 9873.357999
GTQ 8.788333
GYD 238.722293
HKD 8.848548
HNL 29.431933
HRK 7.534098
HTG 149.307164
HUF 404.328564
IDR 19166.691798
ILS 4.127418
IMP 0.856819
INR 97.14888
IQD 1494.978118
IRR 48040.649287
ISK 146.007378
JEP 0.856819
JMD 180.76141
JOD 0.808919
JPY 162.244805
KES 147.731395
KGS 99.760127
KHR 4566.499656
KMF 493.386381
KPW 1026.692336
KRW 1641.042437
KWD 0.349749
KYD 0.950997
KZT 585.190057
LAK 24683.369827
LBP 102212.926182
LKR 341.751753
LRD 227.64099
LSL 21.30462
LTL 3.368395
LVL 0.690039
LYD 6.242858
MAD 10.580087
MDL 19.54671
MGA 5147.719945
MKD 61.553306
MMK 2395.477676
MNT 4073.570578
MOP 9.116222
MRU 45.162707
MUR 51.619833
MVR 17.579546
MWK 1978.19458
MXN 22.352576
MYR 4.971243
MZN 73.008614
NAD 21.30462
NGN 1831.185579
NIO 41.991383
NOK 11.806653
NPR 155.166012
NZD 1.912066
OMR 0.439206
PAB 1.141091
PEN 4.182345
PGK 4.623565
PHP 64.362474
PKR 320.673116
PLN 4.267794
PYG 9137.172187
QAR 4.159191
RON 4.977976
RSD 117.831219
RUB 94.291218
RWF 1609.643891
SAR 4.279173
SBD 9.530343
SCR 16.496695
SDG 685.034147
SEK 10.947847
SGD 1.4939
SHP 0.896466
SLE 25.899685
SLL 23921.342521
SOS 651.952421
SRD 42.037662
STD 23611.620524
SVC 9.984552
SYP 14832.197421
SZL 21.121387
THB 38.078835
TJS 12.038155
TMT 3.992692
TND 3.402351
TOP 2.671797
TRY 43.857991
TTD 7.744695
TWD 37.014078
TZS 3068.668932
UAH 47.569776
UGX 4185.064123
USD 1.140769
UYU 48.042866
UZS 14772.962132
VES 98.730054
VND 29660.000818
VUV 137.556436
WST 3.153067
XAF 659.419079
XAG 0.034467
XAU 0.000342
XCD 3.082986
XDR 0.818879
XOF 656.505185
XPF 119.331742
YER 279.605762
ZAR 21.122997
ZMK 10268.29402
ZMW 31.864294
ZWL 367.327237
  • RIO

    0.3100

    60.87

    +0.51%

  • NGG

    0.8100

    72.85

    +1.11%

  • BTI

    0.3400

    42.39

    +0.8%

  • BCE

    0.1600

    21.81

    +0.73%

  • RBGPF

    -2.5700

    60.88

    -4.22%

  • SCS

    -0.0300

    9.86

    -0.3%

  • GSK

    0.6300

    38.06

    +1.66%

  • CMSC

    -0.0100

    22.32

    -0.04%

  • BCC

    -0.1800

    95.33

    -0.19%

  • BP

    -0.0600

    29.13

    -0.21%

  • AZN

    0.3600

    69.93

    +0.51%

  • VOD

    0.2200

    9.57

    +2.3%

  • JRI

    0.0600

    12.8

    +0.47%

  • RYCEF

    0.0300

    10.18

    +0.29%

  • CMSD

    0.0200

    22.48

    +0.09%

  • RELX

    -0.1900

    53.36

    -0.36%

Heathrow Airport 'fully operational' after fire shutdown

Heathrow Airport 'fully operational' after fire shutdown

Heathrow Airport said it was "fully operational" on Saturday but delays and cancellations were expected as Europe's busiest air hub resumed operations after a power station fire caused travel mayhem.

Text size:

The electricity substation blaze knocked out power at the London airport, closing it for most of Friday before some flights began to arrive and take off later in the evening.

The shutdown affected thousands of passengers around the world and raised serious questions about the reliability of one of the UK's most critical pieces of infrastructure.

"We can confirm that Heathrow is open and fully operational today," an airport spokesperson said on Saturday morning.

"Teams across the airport continue to do everything they can to support passengers impacted by yesterday's outage at an off-airport power substation."

About 1,350 flights were affected by Friday's closure, according to the Flightradar24 tracking website. Around 120 Heathrow-bound planes were in the air when the closure was announced and had to be diverted.

Delays and cancellations were likely on Saturday as airlines scrambled to clear a backlog of flights.

"We have hundreds of additional colleagues on hand in our terminals and we have added flights to today's schedule to facilitate an extra 10,000 passengers travelling through the airport," the spokesperson said.

"Passengers travelling today should check with their airline for the latest information regarding their flight."

British Airways said it expected to operate around 85 percent of its scheduled flights at the airport throughout the day. The airline would normally run about 600 arrivals and departures on a Saturday.

"We are planning to operate as many flights as possible to and from Heathrow on Saturday, but to recover an operation of our size after such a significant incident is extremely complex," a BA spokesperson said.

"We expect around 85 percent of our Saturday Heathrow schedule to run, but it is likely that all travelling customers will experience delays as we continue to navigate the challenges posed by Friday’s power outage at the airport."

Restrictions on overnight flights have been temporarily lifted to help ease congestion, according to the UK's transport department.

Around 230,000 passengers use Heathrow every day -- 83 million a year -- making it one of the world's busiest airports. Planes from Heathrow serve around 80 countries.

- 'No indication of foul play' -

The scale of the disruption raised questions about Heathrow's vulnerability.

Heathrow Airport's chief executive Thomas Woldbye told the BBC he was "proud" of the airport's response and refused comment when asked if he should step down.

Woldbye said on Friday a back-up transformer had failed, meaning systems had to be closed down.

He apologised to stranded passengers and defended the airport's response to the situation, saying it was like losing power "equal to that of a mid-sized city".

"We cannot guard ourselves 100 percent," he added.

UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said the government would "need to understand what caused an incident of this magnitude at an electricity substation that is very close to a critical piece of national infrastructure".

London's Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command is leading the investigation into the fire given its impact, but said that there was "currently no indication of foul play".

Fire officials said the fire, which broke out on Thursday night, was "believed to be non-suspicious" and that an investigation would "focus on the electrical distribution equipment".

Around 150 people were evacuated from nearby properties and the outage left 100,000 homes without power for several hours.

Smoke could still be seen coming from the electrical substation on Saturday morning.

T.Gerber--NZN