Heathrow disruption (March 2025)

[Grey Havoc]

Heathrow Airport latest: Shutdown causes flight chaos and leaves thousands stranded

The fire which knocked out power to Heathrow is still burning, as sources tell the BBC counter-terrorism police are investigating as a "precautionary measure".

www.bbc.com

Heathrow airport closed: Counter-terror police investigate fire as flights halted

Counter-terrorism police are leading the investigation into the fire that has shut down Heathrow airport.

www.telegraph.co.uk

A right old mess, as the saying goes.

 

[Grey Havoc]

Why was Heathrow so vulnerable to substation fire?

UK’s busiest airport shuts down after blaze causes large-scale power outage

www.telegraph.co.uk

 

[TomcatViP]

UK citizens might want to have a more stringent look at what they pay in airport taxes.

 

[Yellow Palace]

UK citizens might want to have a more stringent look at what they pay in airport taxes.

Zero. That was easy.

 

[TomcatViP]

@Yellow Palace : You don´t pay any airport taxes when flying from Heathrow?!

 

[FighterJock]

I think that Heathrow should have it's own back up power supply just in case anything like that ever happens again.

 

[EwenS]

I think that Heathrow should have it's own back up power supply just in case anything like that ever happens again.

AIUI, Heathrow does have back up power supplies that cover at least " key" systems (like ATC) and that they worked as designed (diesel generators and uninterruptible power supplies).

However they are not adequate to run all the electrical systems in the entire airport.

There was also a back up diesel generator within the sub-station. Unfortunately what happened seems to have taken that out as well as damaging the sub-station.

 

[Yellow Palace]

@Yellow Palace : You don´t pay any airport taxes when flying from Heathrow?!

None that are airport specific. Air Passenger Duty is levied on flights, and is AFAIK the only specific aviation tax. It has nothing to do with airports beyond the fact that that's where a flight originates.

The UK Treasury, in one of its few good moves, has made it very clear that hypothecating taxes to be spent on the area taxed is a terrible idea.

I think that Heathrow should have it's own back up power supply just in case anything like that ever happens again.

They do. They just can't run the airport indefinitely at full capacity off of it.

 

[TomcatViP]

Probably not so terrible. Then who makes sure infra are up to the task to support traffic?
I reckon the insane drift in airports fee across Europe but then...

 

[Yellow Palace]

Probably not so terrible. Then who makes sure infra are up to the task to support traffic?

The airport operators (who charge airlines fees for the privilege of using their airport) and, to an extent, central government out of general taxation - with no link to the amount of APD received.