London’s Heathrow outage upends travel plans for many. Delta issues waiver

Traveler AJ Paron flew from Hartsfield-Jackson on Thursday morning on her way back from a business trip to Atlanta, then boarded a Delta flight with her boyfriend from her home airport at Minneapolis-St. Paul to London for a vacation in Europe. Her flight was supposed to arrive at Heathrow on Friday morning.

But several hours into the flight, the pilot got on the intercom, said Heathrow was closed “and that we were going to be turning around immediately and heading back” to Minneapolis, she said.

Credit: Courtesy of Flight Aware (flightaware.com)

Credit: Courtesy of Flight Aware (flightaware.com)

“Everyone started grumbling,” she said. “There were many unhappy passengers,” with “a lot of families on the flight with a lot of little kids.”

London’s Heathrow Airport closed Friday after experiencing “a significant power outage” because of a fire at an electrical substation that supplies the airport, the airport said on its website.

But by Friday afternoon, Heathrow said it could restart flights with a reduced operation.

“We hope to run a full operation tomorrow (Saturday),” the airport added.

Heathrow Airport is the fourth-busiest airport in the world, behind Atlanta, Dubai and Dallas/Fort Worth, according to Airports Council International’s ranking based on 2023 passenger counts.

Delta suspended its flights Friday to Heathrow because of the power outage and closure of the airport.

It had several flights that departed for Heathrow Airport late Thursday that were diverted to Amsterdam, including a flight from Atlanta. Delta joint venture partner carrier KLM has a hub in Amsterdam to connect passengers to other destinations.

Delta said it worked to reaccommodate those passengers, while London-bound travelers could travel from Amsterdam to London by train and get reimbursement for the expense.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Paron’s flight, however, returned to Minneapolis, landing back where it started at nearly 2 a.m.

Paron, a Delta platinum-level frequent flyer who travels often for her work as an executive at a design media firm, said she called for assistance from the airline and was rebooked to fly Friday through Detroit to land in London on Saturday.

But she was still worried that if flights were not fully back up and running Saturday, “we are absolutely in danger of being stuck in Detroit.” To prepare, she repacked to bring only carry-on bags.

Paron had originally planned to fly to Rome after her trip to London, but scrapped that plan.

“If we can get to London, we’re looking at doing a holiday, going up to a resort in England that we can drive to,” Paron said. “Yeah, we’re done with airports right now.”

Delta issued a waiver to allow travelers more flexibility to adjust their travel plans. While Heathrow said Friday afternoon it could restart flights, it said it would first prioritize repatriation and relocation of planes. It could take much longer to rebook passengers who ended up stranded around the world and get them to their destinations.

In an indication of how lasting the impact could be, the Delta waiver was issued for customers who had flights booked for Friday, Saturday or Sunday to, from or through London’s Heathrow Airport.

Those travelers can change their flights to another date a few days later without paying a higher fare, subject to certain limitations.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Delta typically has three flights a day from London’s Heathrow Airport to Atlanta, according to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium. British Airways and Virgin Atlantic each have one flight a day from Heathrow to Atlanta.

There were five Friday flights from Heathrow to Atlanta canceled, while three Thursday flights from Atlanta to Heathrow were canceled, according to FlightAware.com.

The cancellations included flights on Delta, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.

Hartsfield-Jackson, which is the world’s busiest airport, had a power outage in December 2017 that paralyzed the airport for 11 hours and stranded travelers around the world.

That Hartsfield-Jackson outage was caused by a fire that damaged an underground electrical facility along with substations that served the airport and the backup electrical system, according to Georgia Power. The fire occurred in a tunnel that runs along the path of the underground Plane Train tunnel.

That Atlanta airport power outage caused chaos and confusion for passengers at the airport.

It prompted a study of airport power outages by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, with a report released in 2023 showing that power outages have affected most of the airports the GAO surveyed.