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Heathrow Airport reopened on Saturday morning after a complete shutdown caused by electrical disruptions, but airlines warned of further disruption when they launched operations.
Thomas Waldby, Heathrow’s chief executive, defended the planning of unforeseen airports and said he was “proud” of his response to the fire caused with electrical interruption.
The airport was completely open to flights on Saturday morning and the first planes were stripped off immediately after 6am.
Heathrow said it was “open and fully operational”, but airlines canceled 100 from Saturday’s flights by 11:30 am, as they started the logistical challenge to restart their operations with aircraft, teams and passengers outside their place and scattered around the world.
Some airline executives were privately frustrated at the airport messages that recovered them completely, as they still cancel flights and deal with Trapped passengers.
British Airways, by far the largest airline operator in Heathrow, said it was expected to cancel about 15 % of its schedule to and from Heathrow on Saturday, which would be about 90 flights.
“To recover our size surgery after such an important incident is extremely complex. It is likely that all travel customers will experience delays, as we continue to navigate the challenges set up by the power outage on Friday at the airport,” the airline said.
Heathrow was closed in the early morning on Friday, after a fire at a local electricity substation in west London caused a power outage at the airport.
The airport and the national network are faced with an intensive examination about how the failure of one of the three substations can lead to Heathrow’s closure for almost 24 hours.
Willie Walsh, the former BA chief and Heathrow’s longtime critic, said there was a “clear failure of planning” from the airport.
Waldbay said the airport’s backup power for its critical functions, including the runway lights and the control tower, but that they were not designed to power the entire airport.
“Neede we need a special headquarters to readiness. I don’t know about the airport that has it,” he told the BBC.
“Of course, we will look at this and say that we can learn from this, whether we need a different level of elasticity if we cannot believe that the network around us is working properly.”
The national network said on Saturday it is taking steps to improve the elasticity of its network.
The FTSE 100 owns and manages the North Hyde substation in Chase, West London, which ignited late Thursday night, raising questions about the vulnerability of the UK’s critical infrastructure.
The cause of the fire is still being investigated, but the national network said power has now been returned to all clients.
“The power supply has been returned to all clients related to our North Hyde substation, including Heathrow, allowing operations to continue at the airport. We are now implementing measures to help further improve the level of elasticity of our network,” the report said.
On Saturday morning in Heathrow, passengers noticed a minimal disorder.
Dana Pane, a passenger flying home to Bologna, arrived at the airport six hours early “only in the event of a disorder, but did not see anything.
“British Airways advised me to come here early, so too,” she said. “But honestly, there was very little problem.”
Heather Moore, who landed in Heathrow, immediately after 7am from Vietnam, said she saw the news on Friday and feared her flight would be canceled.
“(But) in the end everything was fine,” she said.
About 1,300 flights were canceled on Friday and flights were already in the air to their original airport or diverted to other centers throughout Europe.
It has left airlines to face a big challenge because they are restarting their schedules: many of their aircraft, pilots and cabin crews are in the wrong places, while many employees will also not be able to work because of strict flight rest rules.
“All of these long-range planes have completed the airports where they never had to be. If there were no teams there to collect them, then airlines would fight to get their aircraft to move again as normal,” said Johnon Strickland, a consultant.
“The crew will also need a vacation in a day or two before they can restart, and every extra day is an additional cancellation that lasts in the days that follow. That’s a domino effect.”
Heathrow said he added an additional 50 take -off and landing slots, allowing an additional 10,000 passengers to travel on Saturday if airlines could find aircraft and crew for them.
The London -based anti -terrorism command has continued to investigate the substation fire, but said on Friday night that they did not treat the incident as suspicious.
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