by Natasha Lair
Last updated: 11:35 AM ET, Mon March 24, 2025
On March 21, 2025, a fire at the North Hyde electrical substation in Hayes, west London, led to a significant power outage at Heathrow Airport, resulting in the cancellation of over 1,000 flights and affecting more than 200,000 passengers.
As reported, the impact of the closure of one of the biggest travel hubs in the world is likely to last several days as passengers try to reschedule flights.
The Sun reports that the shutdown is estimated to have cost the airline industry over £60 million.
In response to the incident, Willie Walsh, Director General of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), criticized Heathrow's infrastructure resilience, stating, "This is yet another case of Heathrow letting down both travelers and airlines. And that begs some serious questions."
"Firstly, how is it that critical infrastructure—of national and global importance—is totally dependent on a single power source without an alternative. If that is the case—as it seems—then it is a clear planning failure by the airport.
"And, from that arises the question of who bears the costs of taking care of disrupted travelers. We must find a fairer allocation of passenger care costs than airlines alone picking up the tab when infrastructure fails. Until that happens, Heathrow has very little incentive to improve,” Walsh said.
The airport defended its decision to close, Reuters reports.
Heathrow indicated that safely powering down and rebooting was necessary, despite claims from National Grid that alternative power sources were available.
"Hundreds of critical systems across the airport were required to be safely powered down and then safely and systematically rebooted," a Heathrow spokesperson said.
The incident has prompted the UK government to initiate an investigation into the causes and responses to the power outage, The Standard reported.
Counterterrorism police initially led the investigation. The head of Britain’s MI6 spy agency has accused Moscow of mounting a “staggeringly reckless” sabotage campaign against allies of Ukraine in its war against Russia’s full-scale invasion, Associated Press reported.
Authorities ruled out foul play and handed the investigation back to the London Fire Brigade, which said it is focusing on the substation’s electrical distribution equipment.
In a statement, Heathrow said it supports the Government's decision to investigate the causes and responses to the outage, and announced its own internal review.
The airport reopened after approximately 18 hours as its power supply was reconfigured. Heathrow reported that it ran a full schedule on Saturday and Sunday, with 400,000 passengers on 2,500 weekend flights.
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