London’s Heathrow Airport resumed full operations on Saturday after a major power outage caused by a fire at an electrical substation led to significant disruptions. Air India confirmed that flights to and from Heathrow had recommenced as per schedule.
Flight AI111 operated on time, while AI161, which was diverted to Frankfurt on March 21, was set to depart Frankfurt at 2:05 pm IST.
The incident left Europe’s busiest airport crippled for most of Friday, forcing cancellations and delays. Tens of thousands of passengers were left scrambling for accommodation and alternative flights as airlines attempted to reroute passengers and restore schedules. By Saturday morning, most flights were departing as planned, though some delays and cancellations persisted.
British Airways, Heathrow’s primary carrier, reported that approximately 85% of its flights were expected to proceed on Saturday. However, the airline warned that recovering from such a large-scale disruption remained complex. Virgin Atlantic also aimed to operate a near-full schedule with limited cancellations.
A Heathrow spokesperson stated that hundreds of additional staff had been deployed to assist passengers. Additional flights were scheduled to accommodate 10,000 extra travellers. However, concerns arose over how a crucial infrastructure failure could occur without adequate backup systems.
IATA head Willie Walsh criticized the failure, labelling it a planning oversight. London’s police, after an initial assessment, ruled out suspicious activity, but investigations by the London Fire Brigade are ongoing, focusing on the electrical distribution system.