London: Heathrow Airport expects normal operations by Saturday after a major power outage caused severe global travel disruptions.
CEO Thomas Woldbye confirmed that the airport should be fully operational by Saturday morning, restoring 100% flight capacity.
He described the incident as a “major severity event” and apologized to passengers affected by delays and cancellations.
Flights resumed Friday night, including British Airways routes to Cape Town and Riyadh, as per FlightRadar24 tracking data.
Inbound flights from six continents were scheduled to land at Heathrow by early Saturday morning.
Flight schedule updates
Heathrow’s first Saturday departures are set for 6 a.m. local time, with most flights currently listed as on schedule.
British Airways confirmed clearance for eight long-haul departures from 7 p.m. local time on Friday night.
The airline aims to operate at 85% capacity on Saturday but warned of complexities in resuming full services.
Passengers were advised to expect continued disruptions in the coming days due to operational recovery challenges.
CEO Sean Doyle stated that deployment issues might cause additional delays as crews were diverted to various airports.
Fire in Hayes
A fire in an electrical substation in Hayes, near Heathrow, caused the outage, affecting over 1,000 flights.
The shutdown left more than 290,000 passengers stranded, with officials warning of significant delays in clearing the backlog.
Flights to Heathrow were inbound from major cities, including Sydney, Hong Kong, Singapore, New York, and Johannesburg.
British utility provider National Grid restored partial power to Heathrow on an interim basis Friday afternoon.
Repatriation flights for stranded passengers at diverted airports across Europe were among the first to depart.
Ongoing investigation
Authorities launched an inquiry into the substation fire, which remains under control but continues to burn.
So far, police have found no evidence of foul play in the incident.
Heathrow Airport assured passengers that efforts were underway to fully restore normal operations as soon as possible.
Experts expect flight rescheduling and crew deployment challenges to persist for several days.
Passengers were urged to check flight updates and prepare for potential delays over the weekend.
