LHR shutdown due to substation fire Friday 21 March

[SYD]

All those alternate airports are going to get pretty full soon since the airlines can’t really go on to LHR until it reopens or they send the aircraft home empty? But that strands the waiting PAX at LHR.

This will take days to clear….

 

[jrfsp]

Eurostar is often booked out in normal circumstances, as the vast majority (IIRC >80 per cent) of travel between London and Paris is by it not the airlines.

I've travelled on it numerous times (mainly offpeak but once an early Friday arvo) and my car has always been chock-a-block.

It may be difficult for ES to put on extra trains at short notice as it's not the sole user of Getlink's Chunnel.

Yes Eurostar is often full. Coaches can be put on through the channel ferries which should have plenty of capacity.

Even so there are plenty of seats (suspect they will sell out soon) on multiple easyJet flight from CDG to LGW/LTN and SEN for less than 100 euro. Vueling is selling flights from ORY to LGW too.

 

[ABC1]

QANTAS has the QF1 leaving CDG at 13:30 local.. yeah sure… I too have been on the Eurostar a few times and it was also chockers.. Last year I also flew CDG to Bristol on Easyjet and they were very good.

 

[SYD]

Yes Eurostar is often full. Coaches can be put on through the channel ferries which should have plenty of capacity.

Even so there are plenty of seats (suspect they will sell out soon) on multiple easyJet flight from CDG to LGW/LTN and SEN for less than 100 euro. Vueling is selling flights from ORY to LGW too.

It will be interesting to see if QF have already rebooked any PAX?

Anyone who’s not time critical will be probably just ride it out in a airport hotel and pop over to LHR tomorrow.

Personally, I’d probably still try and get out in case the outage is bigger than they realise and it drags on…

 

[JessicaTam]

[mod hat]
Some posts have been moved from elsewhere.
[/mod hat]

 

[justinbrett]

All those alternate airports are going to get pretty full soon since the airlines can’t really go on to LHR until it reopens or they send the aircraft home empty? But that strands the waiting PAX at LHR.

This will take days to clear….

Maybe LHR will take them once they’ve ditched their pax. Although sounds like an issue with the ARFF cat with fires out helping with the blaze.

 

[RooFlyer]

Today would be a good day to be on an airline that has Wi-Fi.

 

[XWu]

Just wondering if the title of the thread should be changed to “LHR shutdown from substation fire” rather than ending with “Friday”

I am no electricity network engineer but with quoted 70 firefighters trying to put out the fire, I doubt anyone can reroute the supply from power grid via another alternate network to service LHR for sometime even after the fire is out, expecting the damage to be fairly serious. So it’s gonna be more than just a couple of days and no amount of generators is going to keep LHR going without running into problems for long

 

[openseat]

I noticed that one BA flight from JFK is diverting to Reykjavik when it wasn't that far from Ireland.

 

[RooFlyer]

From the Oz app just now. QF9 also to CDG.



Elsewhere in the article they quote someone saying that Heathrow might be out for several days

 

[justinbrett]

Today would be a good day to be on an airline that has Wi-Fi.

Or better yet one flying into LGW or LCY

 

[JessicaTam]

With the changes to BAEC in ten days there might be quite a few status runs getting trashed.

 

[justinbrett]

EK are diverting to MAN

 

[Himeno]

Some of the diversions

BA212, UA146, BA92, VS104 SNN
SQ322, AI161, EY61 FRA
CX255, DL16, DL58 AMS
BA106 MUC
VS4, BA184, VS118 GLA
JL41 HEL
QR107 BRU
BA294 YUL
AA50 YYR
UA901 IAD

AC854, UA918, AA100, UA14, AA730 returned to departure point

 

[dajop]

We were originally booked on Etihad to reach LHR this afternoon. About 3 weeks ago we cancelled the trip. I'm glad we did now.

 

[anat0l]

With the changes to BAEC in ten days there might be quite a few status runs getting trashed.

LOL I wonder if they can claim ORC

 

[kpc]

Sitting at Hel now enroute to Vie. Thank God we did not route via Lhr!

 

[Melburnian1]

From the Oz app just now. QF9 also to CDG.

View attachment 436621

Elsewhere in the article they quote someone saying that Heathrow might be out for several days

I wonder how for say tonight's QF2 passengers will all know where to assemble to board buses that would then go by ferry across the English Channel?

Booked passengers could be anywhere.

And the pilots and cabin crew for QF2 would of course be in London and environs, not Paris.

 

[justinbrett]

I wonder how for say tonight's QF2 passengers will all know where to assemble to board buses that would then go by ferry across the English Channel?

Booked passengers could be anywhere.

Easy. Bus departs Heathrow at the scheduled flight time. Flight departs Paris when the bus gets there and pax are processed. It will be a delayed return but better than a canceled one.

 

[exLXCXFF]

Easy. Bus departs Heathrow at the scheduled flight time. Flight departs Paris when the bus gets there and pax are processed. It will be a delayed return but better than a canceled one.

but what about cabin crew and pilot duty hours?