‘Hundreds of millions of pounds in losses’ expected as disruptions extend beyond Heathrow Airport

With Heathrow Airport shut Friday, the impact of the disruption is expected to extend well beyond Britain’s largest travel hub, potentially costing the airline industry hundreds of millions of pounds.

With Heathrow Airport shut Friday, the impact of the disruption is expected to extend well beyond Britain’s largest travel hub, potentially costing the airline industry hundreds of millions of pounds. The chaos in global air travel caused by a fire at an electrical substation supplying the airport could last days, if not weeks, according to an aviation expert. As of early Friday, hundreds of flights to and from Heathrow have been canceled or diverted. Airline analytics firm Cirium estimated that “upwards of 145,000” passengers could be affected. Shukor Yusof, the founder of Singapore-based Endau Analytics, an advisory firm that focuses on the aviation industry, told CNN the financial losses from the shutdown could be in the “hundreds of millions of pounds.” The fallout “will cause chaos, undoubtedly, for the weekend and into next week because they have to resolve all those flights that couldn’t come in, all those problems that have piled up because of this shutdown,” he said. Heathrow was the world’s fourth-busiest airport in 2023, according to the most recent data, with a record-breaking 83.9 million passengers passing through last year. Yusof said a closure like this could affect entities and people beyond airlines and travelers. It’s a “whole network of people involved” in running the operations of an airport and adjacent areas, ranging from retailers, cargo firms, jet fuel suppliers and surrounding communities that depend on the airport for their livelihoods, he added.