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All flights between Athens International Airport and Heathrow on Friday have been cancelled after a huge fire at a substation near the London airport knocked out its power, stranding passengers around the world and angering airlines who questioned how such crucial infrastructure could fail.<\/p>\n
In a statement, carrier Aegean Airlines said all affected passengers would be informed about alternative solutions. Further information could be obtained by contacting its call center at 210-626.1000.<\/p>\n
British Airways, which also operates flights between the two airports, said it was \u201ccontacting those who are due to travel on Friday via email to advise them of their options.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo offer our customers more certainty, we\u2019re offering those booked to travel to or from Heathrow in the coming days (March 21 to March 23 inclusive) flexible options to rebook to a later date for free,\u201d it said, advising travelers to visit the \u201cManage My Booking\u201d part of their site to see the available options.<\/p>\n
Scotland fans stuck in Athens following the side\u2019s 1-0 win over Greece have had to find alternative routes home via Dublin, Milan and Istanbul due to disruption caused by an electrical substation blaze.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the Tartan Army remain in good spirits as a result of the side\u2019s victory \u2013 with some saying they\u2019ll stay in Greece for a celebration,\u201d a BBC report said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can\u2019t get out of here tonight, we\u2019ll stay for a party,\u201d fan Edith Stewart told the BBC.<\/p>\n
Huge orange flames and plumes of black smoke shot into the sky Thursday night as a blaze engulfed the London substation, cutting the power supply and back-up system for Europe\u2019s busiest and the world\u2019s fifth-busiest airport.<\/p>\n
Police said while there was no indication of foul play they retained an open mind and counter-terrorism officers would lead the inquiries given the critical nature of the infrastructure, and their capabilities.<\/p>\n
Airline experts said the last time European airports experienced disruption on such a large scale was the 2010 Icelandic ash cloud that grounded some 100,000 flights.<\/p>\n
The industry is now facing the prospect of a financial hit costing tens of millions of pounds, and a likely fight over who should pay.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou would think they would have significant back-up power,\u201d one top executive from a European airline told Reuters.<\/p>\n
The fire brigade said the cause of the fire was not known, but that 25,000 liters of cooling oil in the substation\u2019s transformer had caught fire. It had brought the blaze under control by the early morning with the transformer doused in white firefighting foam.<\/p>\n
Heathrow had been due to handle 1,351 flights on Friday, flying up to 291,000 passengers. The closure forced flights to divert to other airports in Britain and across Europe, while many long-haul flights returned to their point of departure.<\/p>\n
Passengers stranded in London and facing the prospect of days of disruptions were scrambling to make alternate travel arrangements.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we first came here, [it was] very exciting and hopeful,\u201d said Beau Mahr, 21 from the US state of Iowa. \u201cNow that we have to wait, it\u2019s kind of stressful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Industry experts warned that some passengers forced to land in Europe may have to stay in transit lounges if they lack the paperwork to leave the airport.<\/p>\n
Global flight schedules will also be affected, as aircraft and crews will now be out of position, forcing carriers to rapidly reconfigure their networks.<\/p>\n
Prices at hotels around Heathrow jumped, with booking sites offering rooms for 500 pounds, roughly five times the normal price levels.<\/p>\n
\u201cPassengers are advised not to travel to the airport and should contact their airline for further information,\u201d Heathrow said, adding that the airport would be shut until midnight on Friday. \u201cWe apologise for the inconvenience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Airline executives, electrical engineers and passengers questioned how Britain\u2019s gateway to the world could be forced to close by one fire, however large.<\/p>\n
Heathrow, and London\u2019s other major airports, have been hit by other outages in recent years, most recently by an automated gate failure and an air traffic system meltdown, both in 2023.<\/p>\n
Pictures on social media showed the airport terminals in near darkness during the night, and British energy minister Ed Miliband said it appeared that the \u201ccatastrophic\u201d fire had prevented the power back-up system from working.<\/p>\n
Willie Walsh, the head of the global airlines body IATA and a former head of British Airways, said Heathrow had once again let passengers down.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow is it that critical infrastructure \u2013 of national and global importance \u2013 is totally dependent on a single power source without an alternative,\u201d he said. \u201cIf that is the case \u2013 as it seems \u2013 then it is a clear planning failure by the airport.\u201d<\/p>\n
Experts in power supply said the type of fire that erupted overnight was extremely rare, but they added that there should be sufficient alternative supplies to get everyone back online quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can be fairly confident they will be able to restore by tomorrow,\u201d said Nicholas Rigby, a commercial engineer at NRG Management Consultancy.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was receiving regular updates on the incident.<\/p>\n
As the scale of the outage became clear, flights operated by airlines including jetBlue, American Airlines, Air Canada, Air India, Delta Air, Qantas, United Airlines, IAG-owned British Airways and Virgin were diverted or returned to their origin airports in the middle of the night, according to data from flight analytics firm Cirium.<\/p>\n
Qantas Airways sent its flight from Perth to Paris, a United Airlines New York flight headed to Shannon, Ireland, and a United Airlines flight from San Francisco was due to land in Washington, DC rather than London.<\/p>\n
\u201cHeathrow is one of the major hubs of the world,\u201d said Ian Petchenik, spokesman for flight tracking website FlightRadar24. \u201cThis is going to disrupt airlines\u2019 operations around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
British Airways, the biggest carrier at Heathrow, had 341 flights scheduled to land there on Friday.<\/p>\n
Shares in its parent company IAG were hit, along with shares in other airlines. EasyJet and Ryanair put on extra flights or used larger planes to help tackle the backlog.<\/p>\n
A Heathrow spokesperson said there was no clarity on when power would be restored, and they expected significant disruption over the coming days.<\/p>\n
The airport\u2019s owners include France\u2019s Ardian, the Qatar Investment Authority and Saudi Arabia\u2019s Public Investment Fund, plus other investors in Australia, China and Spain.<\/p>\n
On the ground in London, thousands of properties were also without power. Businesses in the area include data centers and logistics warehouses. [Kathimerini, Reuters, BBC]<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n