Britain’s Heathrow Airport has defended its decision to shut down operations on Friday, as scrutiny grows over the 18-hour closure that stranded thousands of passengers and cost airlines tens of millions of pounds.
The airport insists the move was necessary after a fire at a nearby substation disrupted power, but questions remain over whether all four terminals needed to close.
Both Heathrow and National Grid acknowledged that the transformer failure was unprecedented.
However, Heathrow was forced to justify its decision after National Grid’s CEO, John Pettigrew, told the Financial Times that the electricity transmission network remained capable of supplying power to the airport throughout the disruption.
The airport resumed full operations on Saturday
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Heathrow explained that the fire late on Thursday led to operational interruptions, requiring the airport to shut down while reconfiguring its systems and switching to an alternative power source.
“Hundreds of critical systems across the airport were required to be safely powered down and then safely and systematically rebooted,” a Heathrow spokesperson said.
Given Heathrow’s size and operational complexity, safely restarting operations after a disruption of this magnitude was a significant challenge.”
Pettigrew, however, pointed out that Heathrow had other power options available.
“Two substations were always available for the distribution network companies and Heathrow to take power,” he said.
As airlines, including British Airways—the most affected carrier—assess the financial impact, both the government and Heathrow have launched reviews to investigate the incident.
Transport Minister Heidi Alexander emphasised the importance of learning from the disruption.
“It’s really important that we do learn the lessons from this, and that’s why I think those two reviews… are going to be really critical,” she told Sky News on Monday.
When asked on LBC Radio whether she had confidence in Heathrow’s CEO Thomas Woldbye, Alexander said she would wait for the review results before commenting.
Heathrow is a privately owned company, with its shareholders including the French investment group Ardian, the Qatar Investment Authority, and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, among others.
(CNN)
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