Heathrow Airport in London, one of the world’s busiest air centers, resumed full operations on Saturday. But in most parts of the Friday, after a fire broke out at a substation of electricity, global travel was disrupted.
Police were still investigating what was caused by a fire at the substation in West London, which reduced thousands of nearby homes as well as Heathrow. The Metropolitan Police said there was no immediate indication of the ugly game.
On Saturday, a representative of Heathrow said that the airport had hundreds of additional employees on duty and added flights to the day schedule to adjust 10,000 additional passengers. Last year, an average of 229,000 people were traveled through the airport.
Heathrow’s largest carrier, British Airways, said on Friday that it is expected to go about 85 85 % of its approximately 600 departures and the scheduled arrival on Saturday, but delayed will affect all passengers. The airline said it was also canceling flights on high -frequency routes where passengers have more reservation options.
It took 16 hours to eliminate the interruption that started early Friday morning. More than a thousand flights were diverted, which devastated more than a quarter of a million people’s travel projects, which is an aviation data company, Serium, an aviation data company.
The arrival of Friday evening resumed. A Heathrow representative said significant delays are expected in the coming days as the airlines tried to return their aircraft to their usual schedules.
According to a tracking website, Filgradar 24, Hong Kong, South Africa and Brazil, were traveling around the world early Saturday.
Heathrow’s chief executive, Thomas Wold Bai, said that at the time of the substation fire, the backup transformer was operating when the airport was lost but it was not enough to run the entire facility. The London Fire Brigade said it was difficult to extinguish the fire because the substation had thousands of gallons of cooling oil.
The UK’s National Grid said the substation network was partially formed to restore electricity to the airport and other consumers.
Fire and Heathrow’s shutdown raised widespread questions about the UK infrastructure. Wali Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association, the World Trade Association of Airlines, criticized that he was criticized that the airport was failing to prepare for the closure.
“How is it that important infrastructure – of national and global importance – fully depends on the source of a single power without any alternative,” he said in A. Description. “If so – as it seems – then this is a clear failure of planning through the airport.”
