London’s Heathrow Airport has been closed until midnight today following a significant power outage caused by a fire at a nearby electrical substation.
“Due to a fire at an electrical substation supplying the airport, Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage. To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, Heathrow will be closed until 11.59pm on 21 March,” Britain’s largest airport said this morning.
Officials have advised passengers not to travel to Heathrow, which served more than 83.9 million passengers in 2024.
A Heathrow spokesman warned that “significant disruption is expected over the coming days”.
The airport shutdown will have implications across the UK
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According to online flight tracking service FlightRadar24, the closure will affect at least 1,351 flights to and from the airport.
Passengers have also been advised to prepare for disruption throughout the weekend.
The power outage comes during a busy travel period, with the impact likely to ripple through the UK’s entire air transport network.
Your rights as a passenger when flights get cancelled:
For passengers affected by cancellations, UK law provides specific protections.
When your flight is cancelled, airlines must provide care and assistance regardless of the cause of the disruption.
This includes food and drink (typically as vouchers), means to communicate, accommodation if rebooked for the next day, and transport to and from accommodation or home.
The Civil Aviation Authority confirms that airlines must provide these essentials until they can fly passengers to their destination.
These rights apply when departing from any UK airport, arriving at a UK airport on an EU or UK airline, or arriving at an EU airport on a UK airline.
Sometimes airlines may struggle to arrange care during major disruptions, such as the current situation at Heathrow.
In such cases, passengers can arrange their own care and claim the costs back later, so it’s important to keep all receipts for any expenses incurred.
This applies when airlines are overwhelmed by the scale of disruption and unable to provide the required assistance directly.
The current situation at Heathrow, affecting over a thousand flights, may lead to such circumstances for some travellers.
