LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - National Grid's chief executive said over the weekend Heathrow Airport had sufficient electrical capacity to remain operational during Friday's fire-related power outage, intensifying questions over the airport's decision to close for nearly 18 hours.
The disruption grounded around 1,300 flights, affecting more than 200,000 passengers and costing the airline industry an estimated £60m to £70m.

John Pettigrew, CEO of National Grid, said that while the fire at the North Hyde substation was unprecedented, two other substations serving Heathrow remained fully functional and were capable of individually supplying the airport with the necessary power.

"There was no lack of capacity from the substations," he told media on Sunday, adding that the decision to shut down operations was "a question for Heathrow".

Heathrow officials maintained that the closure was necessary due to the complexity of reconfiguring its internal power systems.

The fire damaged all three transformers at the North Hyde site, including a backup unit located further from the source of the blaze.

Although alternative substations were available, Heathrow said safely switching over and rebooting hundreds of critical systems - ranging from baggage handling to air bridges - required a full power-down and methodical restart.

The airport's CEO, Thomas Woldbye, described the situation as "major" and "unprecedented", emphasizing that Heathrow's backup generators were only designed to support safety-critical systems, not full operations.

He also defended the airport's response, arguing that few, if any, airports could instantly recover from such a failure.

Airlines had voiced frustration over the weekend, with some executives suggesting the shutdown might have been unnecessarily prolonged.

Several noted that systems in certain terminals appeared functional by early Friday afternoon, and questioned whether partial operations could have resumed sooner.

British Airways, Heathrow's largest carrier, expressed concerns over the airport's resilience and response, with CEO Sean Doyle promising to seek "urgent assurances".

The incident triggered a government-ordered investigation led by the National Energy System Operator.

Transport secretary Heidi Alexander acknowledged the airport's need to reset key systems, but said the review would explore the broader implications for national infrastructure resilience.

The fire, which ignited 25,000 litres of transformer cooling oil, remained under investigation on Monday.

While counter-terrorism police initially led the probe, the fire was not believed to be suspicious, and the London Fire Brigade had since taken over.

At 0926 GMT, shares in National Grid were down 0.1% at 980.8p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.

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