British Airways has issued an alert to passengers as it warned many “not to travel” on Friday, March 21. It comes as London Heathrow Airport is currently closed following a fire at a nearby electrical substation.
Thousands of homes have been left without power and more than 100 people were evacuated after a transformer within the North Hyde electrical substation caught fire in west London. More than 1,300 flights will be disrupted today, including many BA flights.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, BA said: “Due to a power outage in the London Heathrow area, London Heathrow Airport is currently closed. As a result, customers due to travel from Heathrow on Friday are advised not to travel to the airport until further notice.
“This will clearly have a significant impact on our operation and our customers and we’re working as quickly as possible to update them on their travel options for the next 24 hours and beyond.”
Heathrow is the UK’s largest airport, with more than 83.9 million passengers travelling through its terminals in 2024. A Heathrow spokesperson said: “Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage across the airport due to a large fire at a nearby electrical substation.
” Whilst fire crews are responding to the incident, we do not have clarity on when power may be reliably restored. To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, we have no choice but to close Heathrow until 23h59 on 21 March 2025.
“We expect significant disruption over the coming days and passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens.
“We will provide an update when more information on the resumption of operations is available. We know this will be disappointing for passengers and we want to reassure that we are working as hard as possible to resolve the situation.”
This story originally appeared on Express.co.uk
