London’s Heathrow Airport has reported a partial power return after a fire at a nearby power station, overnight, led to Europe’s busiest airport closing down on Friday and having to divert and/or cancel all flights.
Some level of power has returned to Terminal 4, after the UK’s National Grid came up with an “interim solution” to the problem.
However, it is fully expected that disruption at Heathrow will continue for a number of days.
The chaos led to disruption for around 200,000 international passengers, with 1,351 flights being diverted or cancelled. Around 70 flights to and from Ireland were also affected.
Meanwhile, following Heathrow’s temporary closure, Shannon Airport has successfully accommodated six diverted flights originally scheduled to land at Heathrow. These flights were from Toronto, Atlanta, Bridgetown Barbados, Boston, Orlando, and Newark.
Shannon has advised passengers that all London Heathrow flights to and from Shannon Airport today have been cancelled and to check with their airline for updates.
All passengers from the six diverted flights have now departed Shannon Airport and are being bussed to hotels, with the last passengers leaving the airport shortly after 12:15pm. Their respective airlines, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and United Airlines, will contact these passengers with further updates.
With the exception of the London Heathrow service, all flights to and from Shannon Airport are operating to a normal schedule.
