Heathrow airport defended its decision to shut down operations at Europe’s busiest airport last Friday after questions mounted over how such a critical part of Britain’s infrastructure could fail. The 18-hour closure, which cost airlines tens of millions of pounds and stranded thousands of passengers, was attributed to the failure of a transformer.
National Grid initially disputed Heathrow’s claim that the electricity transmission network remained capable of providing power during the crisis, with CEO John Pettigrew stating that two other substations could have taken over. However, Heathrow maintained that hundreds of critical systems needed to be safely powered down and rebooted before operations could resume.
A government review into the incident has been commissioned, alongside a separate inquiry by the airport itself. Transport Minister Heidi Alexander emphasized the need for lessons to be learned from the event, but expressed lack of confidence in Heathrow’s CEO Thomas Woldbye until results of the reviews are in.
Heathrow is a private company owned by several investors, including French investment group Ardian and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. The airport has faced scrutiny over its operations and maintenance following the closure.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uks-heathrow-defends-decision-shut-airport-amid-blame-game-2025-03-24