Power outage at Heathrow causes flight chaos but will it be short-lived?

London Heathrow has been the scene of flight chaos today after a major fire at a nearby electrical substation, late yesterday evening local time, cut off power supplies at Europe's busiest airport.

Earlier today, the airport’s operating company warned of “significant disruption over the coming days,” urging all travelers and cargo stakeholders not to approach the airport until further notice.

The incident has affected some 1,300 flights on Friday March 21st with reports of those en route to Heathrow returning to their point of origin, one example being United Airlines which has also cancelled its Friday flights to Heathrow.

British Airways redirected inbound flights already on their way to Heathrow to other UK airports while Australian carrier Qantas said two flights bound for London on Thursday from Singapore and Perth, had been diverted to Paris.

Singapore Airlines had three flights bound for London which it either diverted to Frankfurt or Paris or returned to Singapore. It has also canceled five flights to and from Heathrow.

Cathay Pacific has also canceled several flights on the Hong Kong-London route.

Supply Chains Forgotten

Unsurprisingly, the media focus has been on the impact of the incident on passenger traffic with little attention given to the risk to supply chains, despite around 90% of Heathrow’s annual cargo volumes being transported in the bellyholds of pax aircraft.

UK forwarder body, the British International Freight Association (BIFA) said that after the COVID pandemic and Brexit, it was reasonable to expect there to be a better understanding of the critical importance of efficient international supply chains.

“If the initial mainstream media coverage of the incident at Heathrow is anything to go by, clearly that is not the case, with little mention in the news of the huge disruption to UK supply chains.

“As expected, most reporting has focused on the immediate impact on flights, terminals and passengers. Regrettably, cargo has been largely overlooked, and the impact will be significant on both import and export movements.”

BIFA went on to explain that supply chains work based on a consistent flow of goods, and this has been severely interrupted – for exports the immediate concern will be that airline sheds will fill up rapidly and be unable to accept fresh freight deliveries, which will then affect other parties. For imports, freight will not arrive at or be diverted from its original final destination.
“For BIFA members, a big concern is that most cargo is carried in the bellyholds of passenger aircraft and when flights to and from LHR are restored there will be a considerable influx in demand by passengers for seats to continue their journeys. Potentially this will restrict the capacity to move cargo,” it added.

Chaos Short-Lived?

While various media are reporting that Heathrow will remain closed to traffic today, an air cargo source has told AJOT that some flights that were diverted to other airports are expected to start arriving at the airport in the early evening local time Friday.

“Information on the arrivals from diversionary airports is being kept under wraps in order to prevent people from going to Heathrow today. “(Passenger) Terminal 5 and T3 will probably be open by then and normal operations are planned to resume tomorrow, Saturday. Airlines have been informed scheduled cargo and pax flights can operate,” the source said.

Earlier Friday, UK-based forwarder, Woodland Group, issued a statement press release in which it said the power outage affecting Heathrow was expected to impact cargo shipments, forcing airlines and logistics companies to divert freight to alternative airports such as Frankfurt, Amsterdam Schiphol, Paris and Madrid.

Jason Breakwell, commercial director at Luxembourg-based Wallenborn Transport, one of Europe’s leading road feeder services (RFS) operators to the airport cargo industry, told AJOT: “At this stage, we are not seeing much disruption to our RFS. We're supporting some airlines who diverted flights this morning into mainland European airports, by transferring cargo to Heathrow. We've received some enquiries relating to potential extra freighter flights in case LHR can't accommodate them over the weekend.”

“Our office and the LHR cargo center haven't lost power, and the cargo terminals are receiving and releasing cargo. If flights are also restricted tomorrow, I do expect some exceptional demands for RFS from and to LHR. We’ll also have to manage the disruption caused by the final of five weekend closures on the M25 motorway which affect trucks moving to and from Channel ports (between the UK and mainland Europe).

IAG Cargo, whose hub at Heathrow handles over 500,000 tonnes of cargo annually and uses the belly capacity of IAG's airlines – British Airways, Iberia, Vueling, Aer Lingus, LEVEL - said that due to the power outage, its operations were temporarily disrupted.

“At this time, we are unable to accept any freight at London Heathrow. We are actively monitoring the situation and will provide further updates as soon as possible.”

With aviation at Heathrow grinding to a halt, concerns have been raised over the impact on goods requiring specialist transportation and with a limited shelf life, such as pharma/healthcare goods and food perishables.

According to media reports, one Heathrow-based forwarder, PML Seafrigo, has offered to help impacted shippers with a collection service from other UK airports and transfer to London Gatwick or Stansted. CEO Mike Parr commented: “We are keen to help companies affected by this situation, especially those whose consignments comprise perishable goods. Any delay has a detrimental effect on shelf life.”

Why Was a Major Hub Left So Vulnerable?

Meanwhile, there has been plenty of finger-pointing as to how such a vital air transport hub had been left so vulnerable to a power outage.

Commenting on the incident, Willie Walsh, director general of IATA, said: “This is yet another case of Heathrow letting down travelers and airlines. If critical infrastructure is totally dependent on a single power source without an alternative, that is a clear planning failure by the airport.”

In an interview with Supply Chain Digital Magazine, Dr Florian Lücker, Reader in Supply Chain Management at Bayes Business School in London, said the Heathrow incident should serve as a wake-up call to companies without robust disruption mitigation strategies.

"Given its importance to the national and international economy, the fire at Heathrow raises important questions about how risks are managed, not just by the airport and its frustrated passengers, but by businesses that rely heavily on it for supply chain efficiency."

Speaking on BBC TV, UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband called the power outage and its effect on Heathrow an “unprecedented event”, adding: "We will have to look hard at the causes and also the protection and the resilience that is in place for major, major institutions like Heathrow."

A source from the airport told BBC News that back-up generators did spring into action, but this hadn’t been enough to power the whole airport.