Travel disruption continuing as Scots struggle to get home after Heathrow fire

Travel disruption is continuing for air passengers trying to reach Scotland after a major incident closed Heathrow Airport for most of yesterday.

The airport is now fully operational, but the knock-on effect is expected to be felt into next week.

A blaze knocked out an electricity substation in Hayes late on Thursday evening, causing a mass cancellation of flights.

Passengers at Aberdeen Airport were delighted to be getting on their way but hundreds of passengers are still stranded – scattered all over the world.

British Airways has cancelled 80 flights to and from its London home on Saturday, and many are still stuck abroad waiting for a seat on a new flight to get home.

Heathrow says it’s expecting an extra 10,000 people to pass through its terminals throughout the day as airlines try to clear a backlog.

But with aircraft stuck in the wrong places, crews unable to fly out – and passengers waiting to be brought home – the disruption is not over yet.

Barrie Wilkins from Edinburgh is stuck in San Diego. He was due to land at Heathrow on Friday.

He told STV News: “We were on the runway and had been sitting for half an hour when the pilot came through. He said there had been an incident at London Heathrow, and we’re just waiting for an update.

“Three and a half hours later, he told us we weren’t going to get the clearance to fly. We had to wait another two hours for British Airways to let us know that they were going to sort us out with hotels.”

After returning to the airport the following day, Barrie was told that the earliest he could get home would be Thursday.

“After two hours, we were offered various other flight options over five days.

“Flying into Phoenix, then going to JFK, back to Atlanta to try and get back to Edinburgh – still with no communication from British Airways.

“We were told that we wouldn’t be compensated for hotels if we booked it ourselves and any bookings had to be booked through British Airways. We still haven’t been told whether or not we’ll be compensated.

“I appreciate the magnitude of the situation but the biggest failing here for the airline is to just go completely cold on their customers. You would expect a little bit more from an airline like British Airways.”

A spokesperson for the airport said: “We can confirm that Heathrow is open and fully operational today.

“Teams across the airport continue to do everything they can to support passengers impacted by yesterday’s outage at an off-airport power substation.

“We have hundreds of additional colleagues on hand in our terminals and we have added flights to today’s schedule to facilitate an extra 10,000 passengers travelling through the airport.

“Passengers travelling today should check with their airline for the latest information regarding their flight.”

Transport secretary Heidi Alexander said: “This incident caused significant disruption, but Heathrow, National Grid, and our emergency services have worked swiftly to get people travelling again.

“Heathrow is a massive airport that uses the energy of a small city, so it’s imperative we identify how this power failure happened and learn from this to ensure a vital piece of national infrastructure remains strong.

“Whilst Heathrow is back to business, some disruption is expected over coming days as things get back to normal so I encourage anyone travelling to check with their airlines and plan their journeys.”

Heathrow is Europe’s largest airport, with more than 83.9 million passengers travelling through its terminals in 2024, and around 200,000 passengers have been affected by Friday’s closure.

This is believed to be the worst disruption at Heathrow since December 2010, when thousands of Christmas getaway passengers camped in the terminals because of widespread cancellations caused by snow.

In April of that year, air travel was grounded across Europe because of an ash cloud caused by an Icelandic volcanic eruption.