Singapore Airlines (SIA) resumed flights to London Heathrow Airport after a citywide power failure brought massive disruption on March 21. The blackout, following a fire at a nearby substation, brought the world’s fifth busiest airport to a halt for much of the day, grounding flights, diverting them and leaving thousands of passengers stranded.
The initial SIA flight from Heathrow to Changi following the reopening was SQ308 which left at 9am on March 22. Other flights to Heathrow, such as SQ318, SQ322 and SQ312 were also due to leave as scheduled.
However, Two flights from Singapore to Heathrow namely SQ305 and SQ317 were canceled.
During the breakdown, Heathrow would have 1,351 flights with as many as 291,000 passengers. Without any operations going on, many flights including SIA flights from Singapore heading to London were diverted one to Frankfurt and another to Paris while others had to return to where they started.
British Airways (BA) and Qantas also resumed Heathrow operations, with BA anticipating 85% of its flights to fly as planned on March 22. Nevertheless, the airline cautioned against possible delays as it resumed full operations.
The failure of power has also heightened fears among aviation specialists about the resilience of Heathrow’s infrastructure. Although the flights have been resumed to a great extent, airlines and customers still experience residual issues following the unprecedented disruption.
