Heathrow live: More delays expected after fire as airport says it’s now operational

Ruth Cadbury, chair of the Transport Select Committee, has been speaking exclusively to The Independent.

“Like everyone I feel most for the 200,000-old passengers who were affected – but also the airline and airport staff who have to deal with the frustration and stress of all those passengers who either need to get home or have to get to weddings, funerals, to start a holiday.

“All of those people who were due to fly yesterday and are still planning to make that journey – it could be days before they’re sorted out.”

Ms Cadbury, who is Labour MP for Brentford and Isleworth in west London, said questions about the resilience of the electricity supply in the area needed to be answered.

“We don’t actually know whether the issue is the responsibility of Heathrow airport or National Grid infrastructure,” she said.

“We have a grid capacity challenge in outer west London due to a lack of enhancements coming in, and the data centres – of which we have a cluster – taking so much power.

“Hopefully in the days or weeks to come, we will know more.”

Asked if anyone should be fired for this, Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I’ll look back at that when I have all the details.

“Right now our focus is to make sure our passengers are safe and secure, that the airport is operating as it should so we can get aircraft in the air and get our passengers travelling.”

Asked if he should still be in his role, he said bluntly: “No comment to that. I’ll let others judge if they think that’s an issue.”

Responding to the accusation that Heathrow is a “laughing stock” after one fire closed the airport, Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye said: “Personally I am quite proud of the entire eco-system – our airlines, our handlers.

“People got us out of the situation which was created outside of the airport.

“There will be questions but I don’t know of an airport that has back up supply that can switch on in minutes of the magnitude we saw yesterday. The same would happen in other airports.”

He said he would establish the facts before blaming anyone for the outage.

Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye has admitted he was shocked by the “unprecedented” fire and said he would look at the “resilience” of Europe’s busiest airport.

He told the BBC’s Today programme: “The incident yesterday was major it was no small thing. It takes time to reset the airport. “But remember hospitals and homes and other areas went down.

“We have three substations that power different sections of the airport. But when one goes down entirely, which is unprecedented and we have to live with the consequences.

“The airport shut not for days, but for hours because we had to reroute our power supply that requires taking down systems and powering them up again.

“We will learn from this and will ask do we need another level of resilience if we can’t trust the grid around us is working the way it should.”

Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye told the BBC’s Today programme: “We are sincerely sorry for the inconvenience that passengers have experienced.”

He said the power substation that caught fire was not part of Heathrow’s infrastructure.

“All our backup systems were up and running, our tower was running but our systems are not designed to power the entire airport. We would need a seperate standby powerplant on site and we don’t have that.

“Heathrow uses as much energy as a city every day. We don’t have backup power for fuel systems, bridges and so on.”

He added: “Everything comes to a standstill when we need to reset as we did yesterday.”

Asked about reports disruptions could bleed into next week, Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye told the BBC’s Today programme: “There are no disruptions to airport operations.

“Airlines, ofcourse, have tales of stranded passengers who need repatriation and so on and they will handle that.

“But the airport itself is running as normal.”

Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye has told the BBC’s Today programme in an update on Saturday morning: “We don’t expect any major flights to be delayed we are operating as normal.

“On any busy day, as today is, not just because of yesterday there are some cancellations and delays and we are handling them as we normaly do.”

An American tourist has praised his airline’s and Heathrow’s “fantastic” response to a fire that closed the transport hub on Friday.

Speaking at Heathrow, Tim Kolb, who travelled to the UK on holiday from Dallas, Texas, he said: “I was just getting ready to board the plane on Thursday night, and the news actually started coming across on our phones quicker than on the (airport) desk.

“But American Airlines did a fabulous job – we didn’t have to wait in the line or anything. They got us our accommodation reservation.”

Mr Kolb, 55, added: “I thought I was going to be there delayed two days, but I went over yesterday.

“It was organised well. In fact, they had several planes leaving within an hour of each other to Heathrow.

“The way everybody responded and fell into action, it was fantastic.”

With planes departing from London Heathrow expected to be packed, airlines have been told by the airport management to expect long security queues.

After around 120,000 outbound passengers were unable to depart on Friday, every seat on every aircraft is likely to be filled.

On average in normal times, one in five seats is empty.

The 6am Operational Update said: “Our three key recovery objectives are: maintaining a safe and secure operation, managing residual risks, and transitioning back to business as usual.

“Operationally, all tunnels and terminals are open, with additional resources in place to handle any issues.

“Security is expected to be challenging, but manageable. One-stop security has been postponed for today.

“Minor issues with baggage systems in Terminal 2 are being monitored.

“There are also incorrect automated announcements by London Underground and National Highways signage claiming Heathrow is closed. This is being rectified.”