In the same week that the British government announced its backing for a second runway at the UK's biggest airport, Heathrow, it closed down completely yesterday as the result of a fire in a local electricity substation.
[Photo courtesy of Daily Express]
The story
Is this a joke? One of the world's busiest airports shut because of a fire off the airport? Shouldn't a major modern airport have its own independent electricity supply, with back-up?
[Video courtesy of Dailymotion]
The UK's airports - many of them run by Spanish-owned AENA by the way - are a laughing stock around the world. Heathrow has been majority foreign-owned for almost two decades. Its current owners include French private-equity firm Ardian and funds from Qatar, Saudi Arabia and China, among others.
The Press has had a field day, with scathing headlines.
Today's front pages [Composite courtesy of SKY News]
The impact
The airport had been due to handle 1,351 flights on Friday, flying up to 291,000 passengers, but planes were diverted to other airports in Britain and across Europe, while many long-haul flights returned to their point of departure.
Heathrow is the fifth-busiest airport in the world.
[Photo courtesy of BBC]
Airlines including JetBlue, American Airlines, Air Canada, Air India, Delta Air Lines, Qantas, United Airlines, British Airways and Virgin were diverted or returned to their origin airports in the wake of the closure, according to data from flight analytics firm Cirium.
The airline industry, facing the prospect of a financial hit costing tens of millions of pounds and a likely fight over who should pay, questioned how such crucial infrastructure could fail without backup.
The repercussions
With stranded passengers looking for accommodation, the prices at hotels around Heathrow jumped massively.
Booking sites were offering rooms for 500 pounds (ca 600€), roughly five times the normal price levels.
The Wall Street Journal asked: "How could one of the world’s most important international hubs be so vulnerable to a single power failure?"
A Heathrow hotel [Daily Mail]
Heathrow is the main gateway for Americans travelling into the region. Last year, 84 million passengers passed through the hub.
Chief Executive Thomas Woldbye said in an interview carried live on the BBC:
“Contingencies of certain sizes we cannot guard ourselves against 100%. And this is one of them. This has been a major incident and, short of anybody getting hurt, this is as big as it gets for our airport.”
The first last word
There is much more to come out over the coming days, but rest assured it doesn't look good for Heathrow.
It's an embarrassing state of affairs. Especially given the government endorsement of a second runway.
Although that too has upset many politicians.
[Composition courtesy of BBC News]
© The "Namer and Shamer"
Photos and Images:
BBC, BBC News, Daily Express, Daily Mail, Dailymotion, SKY News
Acknowledgements:
BBC News, MSN, Reuters, SKY News, Wall Street Journal
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