Heathrow Airport responded effectively to a March power outage that disrupted travel for over 200,000 passengers, despite its CEO sleeping through key moments of the crisis, according to an
internal review.
The outage, caused by a fire at the North Hyde substation, led Heathrow to halt operations temporarily—an action estimated to have cost the airline industry nearly £100 million. While the fire’s cause is not believed to be suspicious, it remains under investigation by the Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism unit.
The review, led by former Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly and commissioned by the airport, found that Heathrow’s decision-making was sound and prioritised safety, with no injuries reported. CEO Thomas Woldbye said the findings confirmed that “the right decisions” were made under challenging circumstances.
However, the report also revealed that Woldbye was unreachable during the incident. Heathrow’s Chief Operating Officer, Javier Echave, attempted to contact him multiple times, but Woldbye's phone had gone into silent mode without his knowledge. He also missed a critical emergency alert sent to relevant personnel.
Woldbye expressed "deep regret" for being unreachable but maintained that the decision to stop operations would not have changed, regardless of who was in charge.
National Grid previously stated that Heathrow had enough power from other substations to remain operational. Still, the report found that reopening earlier would have only gained “a couple of hours or so” and would not have significantly altered the disruption.
Kelly said the airport made the right choices under "exceptionally difficult circumstances" and stressed the importance of future investment in energy resilience.
The review made 28 recommendations, including enhancing communication with power distributor SSEN and evaluating the potential for backup generators to provide additional protection.
Woldbye added that he looked forward to the upcoming final report from the National Energy System Operator (NESO) to address how the fire started and why all three transformers failed. Photo by Ed Webster, Wikimedia commons.