+ COMMENT: Heathrow chaos. A wake up call - And a massive fine

It started as a fire at a minor electrical substation in Hayes, the small dormitory town five miles north of Heathrow Airport. The time 03:15 GMT Friday 21 March.

In very simple terms someone at Europe’s busiest international airport decided that, for safety reasons such was the perceived seriousness of the problem, physically the airport had to close.  Note the word ‘physically’.  Air traffic was not involved.

Were the consequences understood?  How far up the management tree was the responsible person? The whole aviation globe was about to get involved.

Half a world away aircraft were preparing to get airborne for a UK destination, some flights as long as 17 hours.  They were stopped!  And later cancelled.  Flight deck crews took the instructions, and reluctantly passed on the bad news to their cabin crew and passengers.  But it was even worse for the airborne long-haul services due in from around 06:00.  An alternative airport needed to be found quicky, first in the UK, customers to be transferred to Heathrow on landing or left to their own devices.  And then Continental hubs with all the consequences of travellers and crew not where they should be.

And that was just long-haul.  European incoming flights had not yet taken off.

The result was complete chaos typified by cruise ships with a crew change planned. No new staff arriving, often from the Philippines, their replacements stranded somewhere, but with a port schedule they had to keep, the ships would have to depart regardless (and did).

It is said that 270,000 passengers were directly affected by the Heathrow shutdown.  But nobody knows the real number. Passengers were stranded at airports around the world after flight diversions.  And aircrew, time limited on working hours.

Perhaps the hardest working of all were the flight ops departments and scheduling teams.  These are always busy places.  It is the sort of overtime that nobody wants.

All of London’s other airports are single runway operations.  Gatwick, Luton and Stansted manfully coped with the rise in demand.  London City (LCY) operated as normal, with no diversions arriving (it is an airport only for specific aircraft).  Friday was just a normal but busier day.  With limited flights on a Saturday morning LCY could hardly cope with the inrush of passengers.  

Heathrow likes to boast it is the biggest and best.  This debacle will not be quickly forgotten.  Could it happen elsewhere?  One would like to think not, but it is possible.  Airport teams around the world will be examining their emergency plans.  

The International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO) has not even issued a word of rebuke, although Willie Walsh of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), not a friend of the airport, called it another case of Heathrow letting down both travellers and airlines.  And here he is right. It is the airlines who will bear the brunt of the enormous costs involved.  The fire has not cost the airport a penny.  A massive fine is deserved, one that will really hurt the shareholders.

On Wednesday 2 April at 09:15, Parliament's Transport Committee will quiz the airport CEO and National Grid. Tune in.  www.parliamentlive.tv/guide

www.heathrow.com

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READERS' COMMENT

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David Bentley, United Kingdom

Something similar has happened before - at Manchester only last June. Lessons were not 'learned.' LHR is often criticised for having only 2 runways compared to Amsterdam's six for example but in London the total is six, across five airports so that actually turned out to be a benefit.