Updated: Friday’s British Airways flight between Grand Cayman and the UK has been cancelled after a fire caused a major power outage at Heathrow Airport.
The airport, one of the busiest in the world, was closed down entirely on Friday, impacting more than 1,300 flights. Power was returned to Heathrow about 2:15pm, UK time, and some flights resumed, according to media reports.
In a statement posted on social media in the early hours of Friday morning, British Airways advised travellers due to fly from Heathrow that day not to come to the airport until further notice.
“This will clearly have a significant impact on our operation and our customers and we’re working as quickly as possible to update them on their travel options for the next 24 hours and beyond,” the airline said.
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, released a statement Friday morning saying Heathrow was closed due to a power outage caused by a fire at a nearby electrical substation.
“The fire is having a significant impact on the local area, with the airport closed, other businesses affected and homes left without power,” he said.
The British Airways 253 flight, from London, via Nassau, Bahamas, due to arrive in Cayman at 4:55pm, and the outgoing BA252 flight, due to depart at 6:55pm, have been cancelled.
The Compass understands that passengers on those flights are being rebooked on other flights throughout the weekend and into Tuesday.
Steve Pillar, of Travel Pros, a Grand Cayman-based travel agency, said clients had begun calling early on Friday to try to get on other flights.
“We had several passengers who were affected by the closure of the airport today. We managed to get everyone placed on available flights to get them back home,” he told the Compass.
While some managed to get on Saturday’s flight, others will have to wait till Tuesday to fly because any empty seats were snapped up quickly, Pillar said, adding that flights in March and April are frequently “all full”.
Pillar said he understood that the British Airways flight that departed Thursday evening from Cayman, bound for London, is still in Nassau, where it usually stops for an hour to change crew.
Heathrow Airport CEO Thomas Woldbye, in a statement Friday, said, “I like to stress that this is has been an incident of major severity. It’s not a small fire. We have lost power equal to that of a mid-sized city, and our backup systems have been working as they should, but they are not sized to run the entire airport.”
He said later that he expected the airport to be fully operational by Saturday morning.
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