A sudden power outage at London’s Heathrow Airport has led to the closure of the airport, with over 1,351 flights affected. The outage also caused disruptions across the UK and Europe, with some transatlantic flights diverting to Ireland.
Heathrow was due to handle flights from Toronto, Atlanta, Bridgetown, Barbados, Boston, Orlando, and Newark, but these flights have been diverted to Shannon Airport in western Ireland instead. Some 34 flights to Dublin Airport were also cancelled.
The UK energy secretary, Ed Miliband, described the fire that caused the outage as “catastrophic” and said it affected the potential backup generation for the airport. The power grid is working to restore electricity to Heathrow as quickly as possible, but some areas remain without power, affecting up to 100,000 homes.
Meanwhile, London Stansted Airport remains open and has not received any requests for diverted flights yet.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/live/2025/mar/21/hayes-substation-fire-heathrow-airport-live-updates-power-cut-outage