By Kenneth Iwelumo
The recent blackout at London Heathrow on Friday has highlighted the airport’s dependence on potentially vulnerable infrastructure, particularly as it advocates for an ambitious expansion plan.
A fire at a nearby electrical substation late Thursday disrupted the power supply to Heathrow, halting flights for nearly the entire day on Friday. Although backup systems were activated, they were only capable of facilitating the landing of a limited number of aircraft and evacuating passengers, rather than supporting full operational capacity. It was not until late Friday that a few flights resumed, primarily to repatriate stranded travelers.
The public response to the outage was immediate, with Willie Walsh, the former CEO of British Airways’ parent company IAG SA and current IATA director, criticizing the situation as “yet another instance of Heathrow failing both travelers and airlines.” He emphasized that it represents a “clear planning failure by the airport” if essential national infrastructure relies solely on one energy source without any alternatives.
Moreover, considering that Europe’s busiest airport consumes as much energy as a small city, maintaining sufficient power reserves to meet such demand poses a significant challenge. Heathrow has not experienced an outage of this magnitude in at least twenty years, with past disruptions typically resulting from strikes, adverse weather, or air traffic control system failures.
“Many would argue that a higher level of redundancy should have been incorporated, but ultimately, there is a cost associated with that,” remarked Robin Preece, a lecturer in future power systems at the University of Manchester. “It raises the question of how much one is willing to invest in preventing unlikely scenarios.”
Airports across the UK are similarly linked to substations, and it is not uncommon for some to rely on a single power source, according to Preece. However, he noted that the unique aspect of this incident was the fire and the resulting catastrophic failure.
Although rare, such fires can arise from multiple causes, according to John Loughhead, an electrical engineering specialist at the Institution of Engineering and Technology. Certain equipment within substations, including oil and circuit breakers, poses flammability risks or may lead to explosions.
“It is surprising that Heathrow, as a vital part of our national infrastructure, lacks an alternative supply point to address incidents like this,” he remarked in an email.
This incident occurs as Heathrow seeks to enhance its position for expansion and maintain competitiveness against other global hubs such as Dubai and Paris. The UK government has recently approved the construction of a third runway at Heathrow, a proposal that has been under consideration for decades, aimed at increasing passenger capacity.
Additionally, Heathrow is implementing advanced luggage scanners throughout the security checkpoints in all terminals. However, the airport is expected to miss the government-imposed deadline in June, which had already been extended by a year, as reported by Bloomberg News earlier this month.
The consequences of Friday’s blackout could have been significantly more severe if Heathrow had already operated a third runway, noted Guy Gratton, an associate professor of aviation and the environment at Cranfield University. He pointed out that there is currently limited spare capacity at UK airports to accommodate passengers affected by Heathrow’s closure. “Heathrow operates at nearly full capacity,” Gratton stated.
