Reigns the Chaos in the European Skies after a fire, already contained, caused a huge blackoutt which forced the London Heathrow Airport closure, the largest hub of the old continent. They are at least 1.350 flights already cancelled, the delays are very heavy. And the repercussions of what happened are also visible in Bag, where the stocks of the main European airlines are trading in the red.
What happened at London Heathrow
The fire, already contained, is said to have broken out in a electrical substation, causing a blackout. “Heathrow is experiencing a major power outage. To ensure the safety of our passengers and colleagues, Heathrow will remain closed until 23pm on 59 March“, 0.59 on the 22nd in Italy, Heathrow Airport Holdings said. “Heathrow is experiencing a major power outage,” the airport operator said, adding that “passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until it reopens.”
At least 16.300 homes have been left without power and 150 people have been evacuated from the area around the airport. Around 150 people have been evacuated from properties around the Hayes area of west London, where the fire is raging. A 200-metre cordon has been put in place as a precaution and residents have been advised to keep their doors and windows closed due to a “significant amount of smoke”. The cause of the blaze has not yet been determined.
Thousands of flights cancelled
The consequences on European air traffic were immediate: at the moment there are at least 1.351 canceled flights today at London's Heathrow Airport, according to tracking service FlightRadar24, the national airline British Airways said the impact of the fire was “significant”. Neil Hansford, head of consultancy Strategic Aviation Solutions, told the Guardian that the closure of a giant airport like Heathrow for a whole day “is something extremely rare for the sector, which I personally have never heard of” in terms of consequences for civil aviation, at least since the United States closed its airspace after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Today the airport of Gatwick in Great Britain has said it will accept some of the flights destined for Heathrow and another London airport will probably do the same, Stansted.
There are 5 British Airways flights scheduled to depart today between 7.55am and 20pm from Roma Fiumicino for London Heathrow and as many arriving and which have been cancelled due to the closure of the London airport. In the meantime, through a notice that appears in the terminals of the “Leonardo da Vinci”, Adr informs passengers that, “due to a technical problem at London Heathrow airport, delays and/or cancellations may occur for flights to and from the London airport. Passengers are requested to contact their airline to check the status of the flight”.
The companies: In addition to British Airways, the most affected, also Air France-Klm announced the cancellation of 8 flights to and from London Heathrow Airport, Ryanair has scheduled eight additional flights (4 outward and 4 return) between Stansted and Dublin airports between today and tomorrow to make up for the inconvenience to passengers. As for airport operators, the Spanish group Aena, which manages all the main airports in the country, has spoken of 54 flights to and from the United Kingdom affected by the Heathrow stop, while Fraport, which manages Frankfurt, judges the current impact on its activities to be limited.
The British government: "Unprecedented blackout"
It is an “unprecedented event”. These are the words used by the British Energy Minister, Ed Miliband, in an interview with the BBC, speaking of the blackout caused by a fire in an electrical substation in west London, which led to the closure of Heathrow airport for the whole day.We don't yet know the cause of the fire", Miliband added, stressing that the government wants to shed full light on what happened and prevent it from happening again in the future. The priority at the moment "is to restore normal activity at the airport and restore power to the affected area of the capital". The British government does not currently suspect an intentional act behind the fire.
The consequences on the stock market
What is happening at Heathrow is also having repercussions on the markets and in particular on the stock exchange, where airline stocks across Europe are falling. In London, the group Iag which includes British Airways, Iberia and Vueling falls by 1,89, while the low cost Easyjet is down 1,1%. In Dublin it is in the red (-1,9%) Ryanair. In Frankfurt the German Lufthansa loses more than 2%. Sales also in Paris on the group Air France - KLM, which yields 1,87%.
