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London Heathrow’s CEO on Saturday defended the way Europe’s largest airport handled the havoc caused by a blaze at an electrical substation that knock out power to the facility and disrupted hundreds of flights.
U.K. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband on Saturday commissioned an investigation into the power outage to be carried out by the National Energy System Operator.
Heathrow has come under fiery criticism from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which charged that the travel mayhem stemmed from a “clear planning failure” from the airport’s side.
“I’m proud of what the people did to get us out of the situation,” Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye told the BBC on Saturday. Woldbye stressed that the fire took place “outside the airport, and we had to deal with the consequences.”
“I don’t know an airport that has back-up supply that can switch on in minutes to the magnitude of what we experienced yesterday. The same would happen in other airports,” he said.
Woldbye said he hopes the U.K. investigation will “help strengthen the airport’s future resilience,” adding in a statement that the airport is “committed to working closely with all stakeholders to ensure a thorough investigation.”
British Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said “it’s imperative we identify how this power failure happened and learn from this to ensure a vital piece of national infrastructure remains strong.”
Europe’s busiest airport was forced to a standstill on Friday following a fire that broke out the evening prior at a nearby electric station, causing a power outage at Heathrow. The airport was returning to normal operation on Saturday, but passengers continued to face delays and cancellations, according to media reports.
More than 1,000 flights were cancelled due to the airport’s shutdown, which affected tens of thousands of travellers in one of the largest disruptions to air travel in recent years.
“This is yet another case of Heathrow letting down both travelers and airlines,” IATA’s Director General Willie Walsh said in a statement on Friday. He asked how the airport could be “totally dependent on a single power source without an alternative.”
David Omand, former head of the Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ), said he was “surprised” at the length of the airport’s closure.
“Given the importance of Heathrow I am surprised that the whole airport had to be shut for a day,” Omand told the BBC. “You could understand disruption whilst you change over to alternate systems and so on, but such a complete failure over the period of a day — and who knows the disruption may last longer — is a national embarrassment,” he said.
Asked by the BBC if he thought he should keep his post at the airport’s helm, Woldbye said he would “let others judge that if they think that’s an issue.”
