The most busy airport in Europe has resumed flights on Saturday morning, but more disturbances are expected to try to displace airplanes, passengers and crew.
Heathrow airport in London was closed for 18 hours on Friday after a fire in a substation. However, airlines warned that disturbances could continue for days as they strive to replace the plane, crews and passengers for canceled trips.
Heathrow executive director praised the airport’s response, but passengers, airlines and frustrated politicians have questioned how a single fire can paralyze the most busy airport in Europe.
“We have hundreds of additional colleagues available for our terminals and we have added flights to today to facilitate the passage of another 10,000 passengers at the airport,” said Heathrow, advising travelers to inform themselves with their airlines before going to the airport.
British Airways, the largest airline at the airport, planned to operate around 85% of its 600 regular flights on Saturday. The airline said that the recovery of such a large incident was “extremely complex.”
The fire launched an 3.2 km heathrow substation, cutting the electricity of the airport and more than 60,000 properties. On Friday, more than 1,300 flights were canceled, leaving about 200,000 people retained.
The residents in the western area of London reported having heard a strong explosion and saw a ball of fire and a thick smoke. Firefighters controlled the fire in seven hours, but Heathrow remained practically closed for almost 18 hours. Some flights resumed at the end of Friday.
The authorities do not consider suspicious fire. London firefighters are investigating the Substation Electrical System.
The disturbance has caused criticism of British infrastructure, which are not prepared for emergency situations. The government has declared that complete investigation is needed to avoid similar incidents in the future.
Heathrow executive director Thomas Woldbye defended the airport response. “Remember that the situation was not created at Heathrow Airport,” he told the British media. “The airport has not closed for days. We close for hours.”
He explained that Heathrow’s reserve energy worked as planned, but it was not enough to keep the entire airport to work, since it consumes as much energy as a small city. “Most airports work in this way,” he said, added that in the same situation, similar disturbances would occur elsewhere.
Heathrow, one of the most busy airports in the world, received 83.9 million passengers last year. The sudden closure caused the passengers of about 120 flights that came to land in different cities and even in different countries.
He was one of the worst disturbances since the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull exploded in 2010, spreading ashes and ending European air trips for days.
