Heathrow Airport in London reopened Saturday after a nearby fire forced one of Europe’s busiest travel hubs to shut down for most of the day before, creating severe travel disruptions that rippled across the globe.
Passengers flocked to the terminals as the information boards flickered back on. Though extra staff were on hand to assist people, winding lines at the ticketing counters showed that many travelers might be in for even more delays.
A Heathrow representative said on Saturday that the airport was “open and fully operational,” adding that the additional flights on the day’s schedule could accommodate 10,000 extra passengers.
An average of more than 220,000 passengers a day traveled through the airport last year, on flights offered by dozens of airlines to more than 230 destinations around the globe. More than a thousand flights were diverted on Friday, wreaking havoc on more than a quarter of a million people’s travel plans, Cirium, an aviation data company, estimated.
The problem began with a nearby fire.
Heathrow said the power outage was caused by a fire at an electrical substation supplying the airport.
The London Fire Brigade said it was called to the fire, in western London, around 11:20 p.m. on Thursday. About 150 people were evacuated from the area. The fire was under control by around 6:30 a.m., the fire brigade said.
Officials and energy experts said a fault in a transformer most likely sparked an immense, oil-fueled fire that cut off the airport and tens of thousands of nearby homes from the power grid. Systems designed to prevent such a fire seemingly failed, and the size of the blaze appeared to keep a second, nearby transformer from restoring electricity.
The fire is still under investigation, but the Metropolitan Police in London said there was no indication of foul play, and intelligence officials in Europe and the United States said that they had no reason to think that any terrorist group or country had been involved.
What should travelers expect in the coming days?
Information boards at the airport on Saturday showed that most flights were scheduled to leave on time, but a Heathrow representative said significant delays were expected in the coming days as airlines tried to return their planes to their usual schedules.
Some travelers reported that their rescheduled flights had added long layovers and additional hotel stays in place of their original direct flights.
British Airways, which operates about half of the flights in and out of Heathrow each day, said it had added extra staff and extended the hours of its customer service phone lines. It also encouraged passengers to check online for updates and said it would rebook people with canceled flights.
The airline also said late on Friday that it expected about 85 percent of its nearly 600 departures and arrivals scheduled for Saturday to go ahead but that delays were likely to affect all passengers. The company also said that it was canceling flights on high-frequency routes where passengers had more rebooking options.
The ripple effects are global.
Heathrow’s closure was expected to affect at least 1,351 flights in and out of the airport, according to Flightradar24, a flight tracking website. As the closure was announced early Friday, 120 aircraft were in the air heading to Heathrow.
Some were diverted to other airports, including London Gatwick Airport, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and Charles de Gaulle Airport outside Paris, Flightradar24 said. Others turned back to the airports they had left.
As many as 290,000 people scheduled to fly to or from Heathrow could be affected by the closure, said Mike Arnot, a spokesman for the aviation firm Cirium.
Britain’s laws protect many travelers facing disruptions.
Airlines are required to look after travelers who are departing Britain on any airline or arriving there on a European Union or British airline. Travelers whose flights are canceled should be offered a choice of a refund or alternate travel arrangements at the earliest opportunity, according to Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority.
Passengers who choose to travel at another time must be provided with a reasonable amount of food or drink, accommodation if the new flight does not depart until the next day, and transportation to and from the accommodation.
Passengers whose flight has been canceled or diverted should check with their airline on its policies.
