Heathrow Airport Live: British Airways warns of ‘huge’ influence on the weekend despite flights resuming after fire

Passengers will continue to face delays and cancellations as Heathrow aims to return to normal operation today after the airport was closed over a loss of power, with restrictions overnight flights temporarily lifted.

Flights resumed in western London Airport last night after closure after a flame beat an electricity station in Hayes late on Thursday night.

Metropolitan Police does not treat the incident as suspicious, and London four Brigades investigations focus on the electrical distribution equipment.

Heathrow Airport CEO Thomas Woldbye told journalists yesterday afternoon: “We expect to be back in full surgery (tomorrow), so 100 percent operation as a normal day.

“(Passengers) should come to the airport as they normally would. There is no need to come earlier.”

But British Airways, which has a great presence in Heathrow, said it expects to operate about 85 percent of its planned flights at the airport today.

The airline usually expects to run almost 600 departures and arrivals today, but it is understood that cancellations will be made where possible, to high -frequency routes.

A spokesman said: “We plan to operate as many aircraft as possible to and from Heathrow on Saturday, but to restore an operation of our size after such a significant event is extremely complex.

“We expect about 85 percent of our Saturday Heathrow plan to run, but it is likely that all traveling customers will experience delays as we continue to navigate the challenges presented by Friday’s power outage at the airport.”

Despite initially saying it would be closed all day, Heathrow later announced that some long -haul flights would restart during the evening.

Blaze broke out in Hayes, five miles north of the airport, leaving about 67,000 households suffering from power cuts.

The closure of Heathrow due to a substance brand is an “absolutely unprecedented situation”, transport secretary Heidi Alexander said.

“It has been a situation that has been beyond Heathrow’s control.

“I certainly did not expect to wake up this morning and see that tremendous fire is happening,” she said.

She thanked emergencies for their answers and the national network to get power restored to the airport, as well as staff at Heathrow, who “have worked tirelessly all day to get to a point today where flights are able to land again and where the airport hopes to resume full operations tomorrow”.

When asked what questions are to answer about the incident, she said, “We need to understand what caused an incident of this magnitude in an electricity station that is very close to a critical piece of national infrastructure.”

She said she was in close contact with the energy secretary, the home secretary and with Heathrow to “make sure that all lessons we need to learn from the systems that the airport has been learned”.

Travel correspondent Simon Calder reports:

British Airways has revealed that it is likely to cancel 90 flights to and from London Heathrow on Saturday – despite insurance from the airport’s CEO that a “full service” would work.

A spokesman for BA said: “We plan to operate as many aircraft as possible to and from Heathrow on Saturday, but to restore an operation of our size after such a significant event is extremely complex. We expect about 85% of our Saturday Heathrow plan to run.”

With about 600 flights to arrive and depart on Saturday, it represents 90 cancellations.

British Airways also says: “It is likely that all traveling customers will experience delays as we continue to navigate the challenges presented by Friday’s power outage at the airport.

“Our focus is on getting our customers and colleagues to the place they need to be so fast and so safe.

In addition, a number of other airlines have grounded aircraft to and from Heathrow, with these key -out cancellations:

• Air Canada to Delhi.
• Air India to Delhi.
• American Airlines to New York JFK.
• Brussels Airlines for Brussels.
• Turkish airlines to Istanbul.
• Virgin Atlantic to Montego Bay, Jamaica.
• Westjet to Calgary.

British Airways has warned its services will be seriously affected in the coming days after the closure of Heathrow Airport.

CEO Sean Doyle described the situation as “unprecedented”, where more than 100,000 of his customers on board of approx. 670 flights were affected on Friday.

In a video message to passengers on Friday afternoon, Mr. Doyle said British Airways had “been forced to effectively land the flying operation” due to the incident, which canceled each short distance and most of the long -distance flights planned for Friday.

He said: “This is an unprecedented situation and we have not seen a closure of Heathrow on this scale for many years.

“Unfortunately, it will have a huge impact on all our customers flying with us in the coming days.

“Our colleagues work extremely hard to support our customers with the most up -to -date information in a live and evolving situation.”

The study of the fire is at an early stage, but it is not treated as suspicious, says Metropolitan Police.

Commander Simon Messinger, who leads Met Police Response, said: “The investigation of the cause of the fire remains in his early stages. After the first assessment, we do not treat this incident as suspicious, although investigations remain in progress.

“Due to the location of the station and the influence this incident has had on critical national infrastructure, MET’s Counter Terrorism Command leads our queries on this case.

“This is due to the specialized resources and capabilities within this command that can help develop this study in PACE and help minimize disturbance and identify the cause.

“Officers work closely with a number of local partners, including London Fire Brigade, National Grid and SSSE to build a picture of the circumstances around the fire.

“Various special sub -subsequently investigates the stage, and it is expected to take some time before full assessments can be completed.

“Officers will continue to work with colleagues about the investigation, but as we have mentioned above, there is no indication of any bad game at this point.”

A British Airways flight to Riyadh, in Saudi Arabia, one of the eight long-haul flights that the airline announced was set to leave Heathrow Friday night, has taken off.

Flight BA259 traveled at. 20.58, a delay of 40 minutes from its expected departure time.

British Airways has warned its services will be hit hard in the coming days after the closure of Heathrow Airport.

CEO Sean Doyle described the situation as “unprecedented”, where more than 100,000 customers on board of approx. 670 flights were affected on Friday.

Mr. Doyle said: “This is an unprecedented situation and we have not seen a closure of Heathrow on this scale for many years.

“Unfortunately, it will have a huge impact on all our customers flying with us in the coming days.”

He said the airline had extended opening hours on its telephone lines to help manage as many customers as soon as possible.