Catastrophic Heathrow closure highlights importance of airport's expansion, Chancellor says
23 March 2025, 14:00
The chancellor has said the catastrophic closure of Heathrow, caused by a nearby electric fire, shows just how important it is to expand the airport.
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Heathrow was thrust into chaos on Friday as Europe's busiest airport was brought to a standstill by a substation inferno, with thousands stranded, hundreds of flights cancelled and over 100 nearby residents evacuated.
While some delays and cancellations continue, the airport has now returned to its usual service.
Speaking on Sunday, Rachel Reeves insisted lessons must be learned from the shutdown, which left thousands stranded.
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"We do need to expand airport capacity in the UK and I think that what we've seen in the last couple of days has shown how important that is, but also how important it is to build the resilience in our UK critical infrastructure, including our hub airport Heathrow," she told Sky News.
Her comments come after she threw her support behind a planned expansion of Heathrow Airport in a bid to boost the British economy.
Asked if she regretted a decision to put off a second runway at Gatwick for six months, she added: "It's the first time that we've had an in-principle decision to expand Gatwick."
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has ordered the National Energy System Operator to "urgently investigate" the power outage.
The "investigation will support efforts to build a clear picture of the circumstances surrounding this incident and the UK's energy resilience more broadly so that it's prevented from ever happening again", the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said.
Mr Miliband said: "The loss of power to the Heathrow area has caused major disruption to thousands of people and many businesses. We are determined to properly understand what happened and what lessons need to be learned.
"That is why working with Ofgem, I have today commissioned the National Energy System Operator to carry out an investigation into this specific incident and to understand any wider lessons to be learned on energy resilience for critical national infrastructure, both now and in the future.
"The Government is determined to do everything it can to prevent a repeat of what happened at Heathrow. This review will be an important step in helping us to do so, as we deliver our plan for change."
In the wake of the Hayes substation fire that led to the airport’s closure, the National Grid said it is “deeply sorry.”A statement read: "Since this unprecedented fire broke out at our North Hyde substation late on Thursday night, our teams have worked tirelessly and in close collaboration with the fire brigade and police to get the situation back under control.
"Power supplies have been restored to all customers, including Heathrow, allowing operations to resume at Heathrow.
"We are deeply sorry for the disruption caused and are continuing to work closely with the government, Heathrow and the police to understand the cause of the incident."
The blaze began just after midnight at an electricity substation in Hayes, close to Heathrow Airport, with the travel hub remaining closed for most of Friday.
The incident saw a transformer catch fire, with London Fire Brigade Deputy Commissioner Jonathan Smith confirming the fire involved "a transformer containing 25,000 litres of cooling oil".
He added: "This created a major hazard owing to the still live high voltage equipment and the nature of an oil fuelled fire."
Speaking late on Friday, Heathrow Chief Executive Thomas Woldbye apologised to passengers, calling the incident "as big as it gets for our airport".
Describing it as an “unprecedented incident”, the power outage saw a power loss equivalent to that used by “a mid-size city”.
Heathrow is the UK's largest airport, with more than 83.9 million passengers travelling through its terminals in 2024.
More than 200,000 passengers were affected on Friday, with thousands of homes left without power leading to around 150 people being evacuated from surrounding properties in Hayes, west London.
Woldbye added he is "proud" of how airport staff handled the situation.He said the "major incident" was "unprecedented" as they had to re-route the power supply after the blaze.
Woldbye told the BBC that he is "sincerely sorry" for the inconvenience to passengers.
"We were handling the consequences of that failure," he said.
Simon Calder breaks down the 'unprecedented scale' of Heathrow shutdown
"Heathrow uses as much energy as a city every day," he continued, explaining that power outages bring the airport's huge operation to a standstill for hours.
On Saturday it emerged Woldbye went to bed in the middle of the night, leaving Heathrow airport’s chief operating officer in charge as a fire raged through a nearby substation.
As the fire raged, Heathrow's senior leadership was split into two “gold commands”, according to The Sunday Times.
It was reportedly agreed that one would work through the night and the while would come in for the morning as the airport was gripped by chaos.
Airport boss Thomas Woldbye’s command allegedly took the decision to go to bed at 12:30 for safety reasons, Heathrow insiders told the outlet.
This reportedly left Javier Echave, the airport’s chief operating officer, in charge. He later made the call to close the airport at 1.44am.
Heathrow insiders said the decision for Woldbye to go to bed was taken for safety reasons. The big decision was not whether to shut the airport, but when to reopen. Ensuring the person at the top was well-rested to make clear decisions was paramount, they said.
Mr Woldbye dialled in at 7.30am to a "gold command" call the next morning and the airport's head office at 9.30am. Sources said it was vital him to be well rested to make the all-important decision of when to re-open the airport with a clear head.
The Heathrow boss said the "major incident" at Heathrow was "unprecedented" as they had to re-route the power supply after the blaze.
