Heathrow Airport closed due to an electrical substation fire

A fire at a substation has forced London’s Heathrow Airport – Europe’s busiest – to shut ‎down. The blaze, which is now under control, was at the nearby North Hyde electrical ‎substation in Hayes.‎

Heathrow was scheduled to have 1,351 flights today, all of which have been cancelled, ‎diverted, or forced to return to their point of origin as a result of the blaze, which also left ‎thousands of homes in the surrounding area without power.‎

Diverted planes have been sent to airports such as Amsterdam, Gatwick, Frankfurt, and ‎Shannon, and a total of around 200,000 passengers are believed to have had their ‎travel plans affected.‎

Airport authorities have told The Times newspaper that while Heathrow does have ‎backup power systems, the scale of the outage was unprecedented, and that “activating ‎contingencies for the whole airport requires some time”.‎

The airport is expected to remain closed until midnight tonight, with flight plans likely to ‎be affected into next week.‎

A surge in travel claims in the coming days

“The Heathrow Airport incident will likely trigger a sharp and sudden increase in travel insurance claims related to trip delays, cancellations, and disrupted connections. For insurers, the financial exposure could be considerable”, said Marcos Alvarez, Managing Director, Global Financial Institution Ratings. “The relatively low contribution of the travel insurance business to overall revenues will help mitigate the impact on insurance groups’ credit profiles. However, this incident could cause a temporary increase in the cost of travel insurance and/or the restriction of certain coverages, particularly for travel involving critical air hubs.”

Peter Smith, Senior Vice President of Travel and Mobility at Cover Genius added: “In times like these, the unpredictability of travel disruptions highlights the vital importance of having comprehensive travel insurance. Today's incident underscores why travel insurance is not just a luxury, but a necessity.”

“Furthermore,” he added, “we want to emphasise the role of innovative insurance solutions like parametric insurance, in mitigating the impact of disruptions like these. Unlike traditional insurance products that can require lengthy claims processes, parametric insurance is designed to offer immediate support. With pre-defined triggers, such as flight cancellations or in today’s case airport closures, parametric insurance enables auto pay-outs to affected travellers, providing them with quick and hassle-free financial assistance.”

According to data from AirHelp, approximately a quarter of UK air passengers ‎experienced flight disruptions between December 2024 and February 2025.‎