A body representing more than 90 airlines impacted by Heathrow’s recent closure are threatening legal action if no settlement to reimburse their lost revenue is reached. March 21 2025 saw the unprecedented closure of London Heathrow, causing chaos for 250,000 passengers over 1,300 flights. 25,000 litres of cooling oil erupted into a fireball and set a substation on fire, causing the Heathrow authority to halt operations for 18 hours.
Legal action against Heathrow
The chief executive of Heathrow’s Airline Operators’ Committee Nigel Wicking, representing the airlines who use Europe’s busiest airport, said he hoped the matter could be “amicably settled”, but added: “if we don’t get good enough recourse and repayment in terms of the costs, then yes, there might be a case for legal action”.
Wicking also called for an independent investigation into the matter, covering what happened in more detail and why recovery took the time it did:
“Airlines have a regulatory duty to take care of their passengers,” he said. “But in this particular case, we do feel that it was another party that caused the situation.”
Energy secretary Ed Miliband has commissioned the National Energy System Operator to investigate the substation fire.
Internal responses to the closure
A Heathrow spokesperson said that:
“This was an unprecedented issue which began with a fire at an off-airport substation, in less than 24 hours the entire airport was rebooted from a standing start and we delivered a full schedule from Saturday onwards.”
“There are two reviews into the systems and response both at Heathrow and with the wider grid infrastructure. We will support these and lessons will be learned where needed.”
“Every penny we invest in our airport infrastructure is approved by airlines and our regulator. On a project-by-project basis, they oversee and influence how we build and maintain Heathrow.”
Heathrow CEO Thomas Woldbye wrote on LinkedIn a few days after the closure:
“So, was I proud of the situation we found ourselves in? Of course not.”
“But I am incredibly grateful for, and proud of, what was achieved to get us out of the situation in such a short amount of time by teams of people we all rely on across the entire airport eco-system, but who rarely get the credit they deserve.”
Despite the fact that other substations were capable of providing power to Heathrow, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said a systems reboot after switching power supplies caused the outage.
Swathes of homes were also left without power due to the electrical fire.
Did you experience any delays due to the Heathrow incident? Have you received any compensation if so? We’d love to know!
