Heathrow resumes full service as Ed Miliband demands 'urgent investigation' amid warnings of more delays
22 March 2025, 15:37 | Updated: 22 March 2025, 20:42
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has ordered the National Energy System Operator to "urgently investigate" the power outage caused by a substation fire that shut Heathrow Airport on Friday.
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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.
Counter-terrorism police are currently leading the investigation into the incident - however the Met says there's currently no indication of foul play.
However, after a day of chaos, a Heathrow spokesperson confirmed this morning that the airport is now "open and fully operational" but warned passengers to check with their airlines before making plans.
British Airways has said it expects to "to run a near-full schedule" from Heathrow on Sunday, and passengers should go to the airport as normal unless told otherwise.
A statement from the airline said: "We've been able to deliver around 90% of our Saturday flying schedule, which means the vast majority of our customers were able to get to where they needed to be despite the very challenging circumstances going into the start of the day.
"As things stand, we're anticipating being able to run a near-full schedule on Sunday and would therefore ask customers to come to the airport as normal unless we get in touch to tell them otherwise.
"We're really grateful to our customers for bearing with us over the past couple of days, even though many of them have had their travel plans unacceptably cancelled or disrupted.
"We'd also like to thank the thousands of colleagues who have worked so hard to support customers and help get our operation back on track."
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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 has 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."
A statement from Heathrow says flights have officially resumed and advised passengers to contact their airlines if they are due to fly on Saturday.
The statement, posted to X, says: "Flights have resumed at Heathrow following yesterday's power outage.
"If you're due to travel today, we advise you to still contact your airline for your latest flight information before heading to the airport.
"We apologise for the disruption and appreciate your patience whilst operations return to normal."
A further statement from Heathrow said the airport was "open and fully operational".
A spokesperson said: "We can confirm that Heathrow is open and fully operational today.
"Teams across the airport continue to do everything they can to support passengers impacted by yesterday's outage at an off-airport power substation.
"We have hundreds of additional colleagues on hand in our terminals and we have added flights to today's schedule to facilitate an extra 10,000 passengers travelling through the airport.
"Passengers travelling today should check with their airline for the latest information regarding their flight."
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.
Simon Calder breaks down the 'unprecedented scale' of Heathrow shutdown
The first flight touched down at the airport around 18 hours after all flights were grounded due to the blaze, sparked at a nearby electrical substation.
CEO of Heathrow Thomas Woldbye said he wanted to stress this has been an incident of "major severity".
"It's not a small fire.
"We have lost power equal to that of a mid-sized city and our backup systems have been working as they should but they are not sized to run the entire airport."
Asked if there is a weak point in Heathrow's power system, he said: "You can say that but of course contingencies of certain sizes we cannot guard ourselves against 100% and this is one of them.
"This has been a major incident. I mean, short of anybody getting hurt, this is as big as it gets for our airport and we are actually coming back quite fast I would say, when you consider the amount of systems that we have to shut down then bring back up and make sure that they're safe."
He added: "This is unprecedented. It's never happened before and that's why I'm saying it has been a major incident."
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.
"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.
