NI airports tells Heathrow-bound passengers not to travel

A fire close to Heathrow Airport has thrown flights to and from the London airport into chaos with flights from the island of Ireland being heavily impacted.

Heathrow Airport will be closed all day Friday after a fire at a nearby electrical substation that supplies it with power.

At least 1,351 flights to and from UK’s busiest airport could be cancelled on Friday, according to flight tracking website Flightradar24.

Belfast City and City of Derry airports advised passengers due to fly to Heathrow not to travel to the airports and to contact their airlines.

A number of flights to and from Heathrow are showing as cancelled on Belfast City Airport’s website.

A Heathrow spokesperson said its terminals had to be shut as they “do not have clarity on when power may be reliably restored”.

City of Derry Airport confirmed that all flights to Heathrow are cancelled on Friday.

“Passengers are advised not to travel to the airport but to contact their airline directly to make alternative arrangements,” a spokesperson said.

Belfast International Airport, which does not operate flights to Heathrow, has said it is so far operating as normal.

Irish broadcaster RTÉ have reported that 70 flights between Ireland and Heathrow have been affected by the fire.

All flights scheduled between Dublin Airport and London Heathrow up until mid-afternoon Friday have also been cancelled.

A spokesperson for Dublin Airport said further disruption to flights between Dublin and Heathrow scheduled for later on Friday “are likely”.

A total of 34 flights were scheduled between Dublin Airport and Heathrow on Friday.

Dublin Airport advised affected passengers to contact their airline.

Data published earlier this by the consultancy OAG suggests Dublin-Heathrow is the second busiest international air route in Europe.

It had 2.35 million seats available in 2024, just behind Rome Fiumicino to Madrid.

Graeme McQueen, the media relations manager at the Dublin Airport Authority has told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that the disruption is likely to last a few days.

“I think if you can get onto your airline, discuss it with them, whether you can maybe move to one of the other airports in London because it seems very likely that the knock-on impact will carry on for a number of days on this,” he said.

He added that other flights are not affected by the delays, and everything is moving well but there could be some knock-on effect later due to flights being diverted.

Shannon Airport in County Clare has said it has facilitated several diverted flights originally scheduled to land at Heathrow on Friday morning, including flights from Toronto, Atlanta, Bridgetown Barbados, Boston, Orlando and Newark.