Heathrow airport has returned to normal business two days after it was forced to close when a fire at an electrical substation caused a power cut.
Europe’s busiest airport had more than 1,000 flights cancelled on Friday after the fire at the substation in Hayes, west London.
Flights restarted on Saturday, with the airport reporting more than 250,000 passengers used the airport. Arrivals and departures continued on Sunday, although a number of flights ran with slight delays in taking off.
The energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has ordered the National Energy System Operator (Neso) to investigate the power outage. An internal review of the airport’s crisis management plans and its response to the disruption will be undertaken by the former transport secretary Ruth Kelly.
The Sunday Times reported the airport’s chief executive, Thomas Woldbye, went to bed and delegated the decision to shut the airport to his deputy, Javier Echave, on Thursday night, after senior staff were split into two “gold command” groups. One worked through the night, while the other went to bed to take over in the morning.
Heathrow officials told the newspaper that the decision was taken so Woldbye was better rested when he would take the decision to reopen the airport.
A Heathrow spokesperson said: “Today we will operate another full schedule of over 1,300 flights. We apologise for the inconvenience caused by our decision to close the airport on Friday following a significant fire at an off-site power substation. Yesterday, we served more than 250,000 passengers, with punctual flights and almost all passengers waiting less than five minutes for security.
“We have welcomed the government’s announcement of an investigation into the cause and response to the off-airport power outage and have launched a review, to be chaired by former transport secretary Ruth Kelly, of Heathrow’s response. While these inquiries are ongoing, our focus remains on serving our passengers.”
Power to the airport was disrupted on Thursday night due to the fire in Hayes. The airport was closed, with passengers told not to travel. Planes were eventually allowed to take off and land again on Friday evening.
Heathrow is Europe’s largest airport, with more than 83.9 million passengers travelling through its terminals in 2024, and about 200,000 passengers were affected by Friday’s closure.
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Woldbye said a back-up transformer failed during the power disruption, meaning systems had to be closed in accordance with safety procedures. Power supply then had to be restructured from two remaining substations to ensure enough electricity was available to power the airport, which has been described as similar to a “mid-sized city”.
Counter-terrorism officers from the Metropolitan police initially led the investigation, but the force said the fire was not believed to be suspicious so London fire brigade is now leading the inquiry, which will focus on the electrical distribution equipment.
Heathrow’s chair, Paul Deighton, announced the review, to be led by Kelly, on Saturday night to assess the airport’s response to it.
Lord Deighton said: “The Kelly review will analyse all of the relevant material concerning the robustness and execution of Heathrow’s crisis management plans, the airport’s response during the incident and how the airport recovered the operation with the objective of identifying any improvements that could be made to our future resilience.”
