With Heathrow Airport shut Friday, the impact of the disruption is expected to extend well beyond Britain’s largest travel hub, potentially costing the airline industry hundreds of millions of pounds.
The chaos in global air travel caused by a fire at an electrical substation supplying the airport could last days, if not weeks, according to an aviation expert. As of early Friday, hundreds of flights to and from Heathrow have been canceled or diverted. Airline analytics firm Cirium estimated that “upwards of 145,000” passengers could be affected.
Shukor Yusof, the founder of Singapore-based Endau Analytics, an advisory firm that focuses on the aviation industry, told CNN the financial losses from the shutdown could be in the “hundreds of millions of pounds.”
Heathrow was the world’s fourth-busiest airport in 2023, according to the most recent data, with a record-breaking 83.9 million passengers passing through last year.
Yusof said a closure like this could affect entities and people beyond airlines and travelers. It’s a “whole network of people involved” in running the operations of an airport and adjacent areas, ranging from retailers, cargo firms, jet fuel suppliers and surrounding communities that depend on the airport for their livelihoods, he added.
Airlines rely on precisely coordinated networks to ensure planes and crews are in the right place at the right time. Now, dozens of carriers must rapidly restructure their operations to reposition aircraft and staff.
“At the moment, I think that the real focus is how to mitigate the impact of the airport closure on airlines and also on the people who work there,” Yusof explained, as it could take days, or even weeks, for airlines to clear the backlog of passengers.
Shares of airlines operating out of Heathrow tumbled Friday.
British Airways owner International Airlines Group sank as much as 5% early morning local time, before paring those losses to trade 1.1% down on the day by 6.36 a.m. ET.
Shares in Lufthansa were down 1.6% by that time, while Air France-KLM had fallen 1.5%. Shares in Australian airline Qantas closed 2.4% down.
British Airways said it is redirecting inbound flights already on their way to Heathrow to other UK airports, and it advised passengers on flights from Heathrow originally scheduled for Friday 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,” the airline told CNN in a statement.
Seven United Airlines (UAL) flights have returned to their point of origin or been diverted to other airports, according to the American carrier. Its Friday flights to Heathrow have been canceled, and it is working to offer customers alternative travel options, it said.
Singapore Airlines said three flights en route to London had either been diverted to Frankfurt or Paris or returned to Singapore. Another five flights to and from Heathrow have been canceled, the airline said.
Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific has canceled several flights to and from London, the company told CNN.
Australia’s Qantas said in a statement to CNN that two flights bound for London Thursday from Singapore and Perth, respectively, had been diverted to Paris.
Air India said in a X post that all flight operations to Heathrow Friday had been cancelled.
All Virgin Atlantic flights arriving in and departing from Heathrow will be canceled until midday Friday, with the rest of the flights under review, the company said in a statement to CNN.
