Heathrow Power Outage May Lead To Millions in Losses for Airlines

The power outage at London’s Heathrow Airport resulted in substantial flight disruptions, potentially causing airlines to lose millions of dollars.

What Happened: The outage forced LHR to close, resulting in flight cancellations and diversions. This left thousands of passengers stranded, with some finding themselves in cities like Tokyo, Mumbai, and Dallas.

Although the airport announced that flights would resume later on Friday, reorganizing airline networks continues to be a significant hurdle. 

According to the report by Insider, Ronan Murphy, a director at Alton Aviation Consultancy, estimates that airlines could face losses ranging from $80 to $100 million due to the costs of rerouting passengers and providing accommodations.

“If you think about load factor, let’s say 75% full on average, that’s 220,000 people, give or take, that are affected. That could be $100 million-plus of revenue for one day,” Murphy told the outlet.

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“I think it’s a good thing it’s sort of pre-Easter in a bit of a March lull moment. If this is the middle of July, it would be an absolute disaster. You could have another 300 or 400 flights,” he said.

As Heathrow reopens, airlines such as United Airlines UAL and British Airways are striving to mitigate the impact and restart operations. British Airways CEO Sean Doyle referred to the situation as “unprecedented.”

Heathrow, ranked as the world’s fifth-busiest airport, had around 1,300 flights scheduled for Friday, with a capacity of 290,930 seats. The New York-JFK to London Heathrow route, one of the world’s busiest, is expected to be among the most affected.

Why It Matters: The power outage at Heathrow Airport underscores the vulnerability of global airline networks to unexpected disruptions. Despite the significant interruption, travel expert Mike Arnot remains hopeful, noting that large airlines usually have spare capacity and can utilize their alliance partners to manage such situations.

However, the incident serves as a reminder of the need for robust contingency plans in the aviation industry, particularly at high-traffic airports like Heathrow.

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