Following an electrical substation fire in North Hyde, which sits close to Heathrow Airport, the UK aviation hub has been closed for the entirety of March 21 as authorities investigate the cause and nature of the fire.

On social media platform X (formerly Twitter) the official Heathrow Airport accounted posted: “Due to a fire at an electrical substation supplying the airport, Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage. To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, Heathrow will be closed until 23h59 on 21 March. Passengers are advised not to travel to the airport and should contact their airline for further information. We apologise for the inconvenience.”

Heathrow saw £3.559bn total revenue for FY24, with retail revenue accounting for £772m of that.

Although Heathrow declined to comment specifically on the retail impact of such an event, it did provide the following statement: “Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage across the airport due to a large fire at a nearby electrical substation. Whilst fire crews are responding to the incident, we do not have clarity on when power may be reliably restored. To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, we made the decision to close Heathrow until 23h59 on 21 March 2025.

We expect significant disruption over the coming days and passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens. We will provide an update when more information on the resumption of operations is available. We know this will be disappointing for passengers and we want to reassure that we are working as hard as possible to resolve the situation.”

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