Bus transport
Passengers due to land at Heathrow with Qantas this morning are being re-routed to Paris.
A Qantas spokesperson announced travellers would then be transported to London on buses.
“Our Singapore-London and Perth-London services were diverted to Paris today, with buses arranged to take customers on to London,” they said.
Flights diverted to Ireland
At least six flights will land at Shannon Airport in Co Clare, Ireland, after being diverted from Heathrow.
A spokesperson for the Shannon Airport Group said: “We are closely monitoring the situation at Heathrow Airport and are providing support by accommodating diverted flights as needed and our team is on-site to assist with the additional passengers.
“So far, Shannon Airport has facilitated six diverted flights originally scheduled to land at Heathrow, including flights from Toronto, Atlanta, Bridgetown Barbados, Boston, Orlando and Newark.
“The first of these flights landed safely at 4.26am this morning.”
Crisis mode
The largest previous impact on Heathrow – and airports across Europe – was the closure of airspace following the volcanic ash cloud from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland in April 2010 which saw disruption over five days.
Today alone, 1,351 flights were due to take off and land at the UK’s largest airport.
Those who managed to land at a UK airport should count themselves lucky as they can at least continue their journey back to Heathrow via road or rail.
But it is going to cause significant disruption for hundreds of thousands of travellers today and in the coming days.
Right now, the airport and airlines are in crisis mode but in the coming weeks, no doubt questions will be asked as to how we can protect critical infrastructure and prevent this happening again.
Global impact
Travel experts say fall out from the disruption will be felt internationally.
“The other question is, ‘What will airlines do to deal with the backlog of passengers?’”, travel industry analyst Henry Harteveldt with Atmosphere Research Group told the Tele.
“It’s going to be a chaotic couple of days.”
The picture below shows a departure board displaying an Air Portugal flight to London Heathrow as cancelled at Singapore Changi Airport this morning.
Fire crews remain at the scene
Shocking footage this morning has revealed the extent of damage caused by the blaze.
Fire crews remain at the scene, on Nestles Avenue in Hayes, and continue to douse the area with water.
White smoke can still be seen rising from the scorched wreckage.
London Fire Brigade reported 10 fire engines and around 70 firefighters arrived just before 6am with part of a transformer still on fire.
At least 16,000 homes are still without power
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said in a post on X the power outage affected more than 16,300 homes.
It said: “We’re aware of a widespread power cut affecting many of our customers around the Hayes, Hounslow and surrounding areas.”
