London Heathrow fire, power outage chaos causes flight cancellations at Charlotte airport
A fire near London’s Heathrow Airport grounded flights around the globe, including in Charlotte on Friday and left passengers stranded.
The blaze knocked out power at the British airport, one of the world’s busiest. The fire occurred at an electrical substation supplying the airport, according to Heathrow. As a result, more than 1,300 flights and hundreds of thousands of passengers were impacted by the closure, according to multiple news reports.
American Airlines operates three daily flights to London at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, according to CLT. The Fort Worth, Texas-based company accounts for 90% of all flights out of the airport. Charlotte Douglas is the second largest hub for American.
The airline reported nearly 20 flights were diverted, returned to their departure cities, or canceled systemwide due to problems at Heathrow. American provided overnight accommodations to impacted customers.
The company issued a travel alert for the incident, with options to have fees for flight changes waived. “Our team continues to monitor the situation, and we will resume operations at LHR when airport conditions allow,” American said.
American expects to operates its full schedule of flight from the U.S. to London, beginning on Friday afternoon. On Saturday, the airline is also anticipating on having a full schedule of flights departing from and arriving into LHR.
Customers are encouraged to check their flight status on AA.com or by using the American Airlines app before traveling to the airport.
Heathrow apologizes for problems
On X, Heathrow said Friday it worked towards a speedy recovery and was able to restart flights, return people to their country of origin and relocate aircraft.
“We hope to run a full operation (Saturday) and will provide further information shortly. Our priority remains the safety of our passengers and those working at the airport. We apologise for the inconvenience caused by this incident,” Heathrow said on X.
Heathrow is advising passengers to contact airlines for more information and not to come to the airport unless they’re asked to.
Power has been restored to parts of Heathrow including a terminal, according to CNN. The incident is under investigation, and the county’s energy minister said there was no suggestion of foul play, the report said.
This story was originally published March 21, 2025 at 2:06 PM.
