Heathrow starts a few flights later today – aimed at repatriating passengers who have been diverted to other airports in Europe.
More than 1,300 flights to and from the busiest airport in the UK were hit after it had to be closed due to a fire at a nearby electricity station.
Thousands of houses were left without power with more than 100 people evacuated after a transformer caught fire when a huge explosion was heard.
Electricity now seems to have returned to the airport after an 'interim solution' was found by engineers at National Grid.
Reporters in Terminal 4 This afternoon said that lights in the main building were switched on again and that lifts in the several floors parking garage are operational again.
The airport announced early today that it would be closed until 11.59 pm due to a fire in a nearby electric substation.
About 200,000 passengers were affected by the closure of the busiest airport in Europe.
Online Flight Tracking Service Flighttradar24 said that more than 1,350 flights would take off or land at the airport on Friday.
A British airways parked outside Heathrow Terminal 5 after the airport was closed for all flights
The disruption will take a few days, even if the airport reopens on Saturday, because many aircraft and cockpit bonds are out of position.
London Fire Brigade said that on Thursday at 11.23 pm it received the first reports of the fire, forcing the closure of the airport.
About 120 planes on the way to the airport were forced to distract or return to their point of origin.
A spokesperson for the National Raster said: 'We are sorry for the disruption caused by a fire in our Northern Hyde substation and for the loss of feeding in the area.
'Teams have worked around the clock to restore power as quickly as possible.
'In collaboration with the local network operator Ssen Distribution (SSS), the network has been re -configured to restore all affected customers, including the possibility of supplying the parts of Heathrow Airport connected to North Hyde.
“This is an interim solution while we continue to work at North Hyde to reduce the substation and our network to normal work.”
Heathrow said earlier that it had no “clarity when power can be reliably restored” and warned that “we expect a significant disturbance in the coming days.”
British Airways Chief Executive Sean Doyle described the closure of the airport as 'unprecedented', and one that will have a 'huge impact' on the customers of the airline.
“We hope that power will be restored as soon as possible,” he said. 'But even when that happens, this incident will have a substantial impact on our airline and customers for many days, with disruptions of trips that are expected in the coming days.
“To give you an idea of ​​the extent of disruption with which we are confronted with which we work to minimize, we would today exploit more than 670 flights with around 107,000 customers, with similar numbers planned during the weekend.”
Counter-terrorism officers of the metropolitan police lead the investigation into the cause of a fire.
The power said that there was “no indication of cheating” but “we are currently retaining an open mind.”
Thousands of houses were left without power and more than 100 people were evacuated after a transformer was set on fire in the substation.
Heathrow is the largest airport in Europe, with more than 83.9 million passengers traveling through his terminals in 2024.
It said that the backup power systems 'worked as expected', but they are not designed to 'allow us to perform a complete operation'.
This is considered the worst disturbance in Heathrow since December 2010, when thousands of Christmas outing passengers in the terminals camped due to widespread cancellations caused by snow.
In April of that year, air travel was based on Europe because of an ash cloud caused by an Icelandic volcano eruption.
On Friday, Gatwick Airport accepted seven diverted flights from locations, including Singapore, Johannesburg, Lagos, Cape Town and Doha, originally intended for Heathrow.
Shannon Airport in Co Clare accepted six distractions from Toronto, Atlanta, Bridgetown Barbados, Boston, Orlando and Newark.
Aviation adviser John Strickland said that the closure of Heathrow is a whole day 'a huge dislocation to recover'.
He added: “We are talking about several days of disruption to restore the aircraft and to use them again to move planned and disturbed passengers.”
He compared the disruption of what happened after the terrorist attacks of 11 September in 2001, when flights were grounded over the US.
He said, “It is an enclosed version of 9/11.”
Rory Boland, editor of the magazine which? Traveling, mentioned passengers are not entitled to compensation, but airlines must offer assistance such as overnight accommodation and the reduction of bookings, including rival carriers at alternative airports.
About 150 people were evacuated from properties around the substation and a 200 -meter cordon was set as a precaution.
Speaking with broadcasters on site in Hayes, said Vice Commissioner Jonathan Smith: 'The fire was a transformer consisting of 25,000 liters of cooling oil completely on fire.
“This created a great danger because of the still living high-voltage equipment and the nature of the oil-driven fire.”
A local resident, who did not want to be called, said she heard a “huge explosion.”
All strength went off, she said, and added: “Just smell like burning.”
London Ambulance Service said there were no victims on the site of the fire.
Images placed on social media showed huge flames and large plumes of smoke from the facility.
