London Heathrow Fire
I’m sure many of us have clients flying into or through London Heathrow over the coming days. If we can please keep each other posted with next steps and emergency plans/re-routes, that would be great. I have clients departing Chicago for London late on Saturday evening so I’ll let the group know what I’m being told from the airlines.
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Good news from NBC News: Heathrow CEO says airport will be 100% operational tomorrow
Heathrow Airport CEO Thomas Woldbye said the airport will be fully operational by tomorrow morning.
"Tomorrow morning we expect to be back in full operation, so 100% operation, as a normal day," Woldbye told the U.K. press pool, adding that passengers traveling tomorrow should plan on coming to the airport at the time they usually would, with no need to come earlier.
Woldbye apologized for the "unprecedented" incident and the inconvenience it has caused travelers today. He also praised those responsible for getting operations back in order.
"What happened around midnight last night was obviously that we lost a major part of our power supply, and I'd like to stress that this is — has been an incident of major severity, it's not a small fire," he said. "We have lost power equal to that of a mid-sized city."
Woldbye said his team has been working tirelessly since the incident to reallocate the airport's power supply and restart the system, "which takes a long time." He said they decided to close down the airport after realizing they could not operate it safely at that time.
"And that is our concern number one, is the safety of our passengers and our colleagues," he said. "We realized that that is not possible with that major power loss that we have had."
The CEO said a few long-distance flights will be taking off tonight.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/live-blog/live-updates-londons-heathrow-airport-closes-day-widespread-power-outa-rcna197424