STORY: Flight schedules around the world were sent into chaos on Friday (March 21) as Britain’s Heathrow Airport was shut after a huge fire at a nearby electrical substation knocked out its power.The blaze also knocked out the area’s back-up power system, leading to a mass outage at Europe’s busiest airport, and the world’s fifth-busiest.Heathrow said it had been due to handle 1,351 flights during the day.Flying over 290,000 passengers.Some were left scrambling for alternative travels plans at London’s main train stations. “It is my favourite city but I need to be home.”Heathrow said the airport would stay closed until midnight.John Strickland is an independent air transport consultant.”To have it out of action for 24 hours is a massive impact for aviation, massive impact for the UK economy. We see particular impact from long haul flights which are already on the way to Heathrow, had to divert back to either their points of origin or numerous other airports, some of the UK, some in Europe, some much further afield.”Industry experts warned that some passengers forced to land in Europe may have to stay in transit lounges if they lack the visa paperwork to leave the airport. Global flight schedules will also be affected more broadly, as many aircraft will now be out of position.British Airways, the biggest carrier at Heathrow, had 341 flights scheduled to land there on Friday.The chaos hit shares in airlines including BA parent IAG, which dropped over 3% in morning trade.Lufthansa slipped 1.2%.While Air France KLM declined 2%.Read More
Global flight turmoil as London’s Heathrow closed by huge fire
