As the Heathrow airport, Britain’s busiest travel hub, closed on Friday due to a nearby fire and power failure, airlines said thousands of travelers not traveling to the airport and check online for updates.
About 80 airlines operate in Heathrow and incoming flights to other airports in Britain, elsewhere in Europe or sent them back to their origin while trying to redefine travel.
“This will clearly have a significant impact on our operation and our customers,” British Airways said in a statement. The airline was the most influenced as it had about 340 flights scheduled to land on Heathrow on Friday, according to Flightradar24 data.
The airline had redirected all flights already on the road to Heathrow on Friday morning at other airports in Britain.
Virgin Atlantic, another British airline, said it had canceled all flights by 9:30 pm London, “with the rest of today’s timetable under consideration,” he said in a statement.
The airline asked customers not to travel to Heathrow or the scheduled departure airport if Heathrow was their destination and not to contact customer service. Instead, they said that travelers should check their flight status on the airline website and people on canceled flights will be sent to electronic information for the review.
Air France had canceled eight return flights from Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport to Heathrow on Friday, but flights to other airports in Britain were operating normally, the airline said.
KLM, a Dutch airline, said it had canceled three return flights from Amsterdam to London Heathrow and would redefine passengers. But the airline said it would try to accommodate passengers with an “urgent need” to fly to London by placing them on airport flights near London.
Lufthansa, a German airline, said that all customers on flights inside and outside Heathrow have been reviewed, but urged customers to update their contact information.
Nine flights from Qatar Airways between Heathrow and Hamad International Airport near Doha were affected. For example, one flight was transferred to Frankfurt and another to Brussels.
Air India had canceled most of its Heathrow flights, though someone returned to Mumbai and another is diverted to Frankfurt.
Qantas, an Australian airline, said Singapore in London and Perth to London are diverted to Paris on Friday, with buses available to transport customers to London. Flights departing from Sydney and Perth on Friday and are expected to land in London on Saturday morning, where they are still scheduled to run properly.
On their websites, most airlines say canceled flights reappear free. The cost is likely to be placed for airlines as they redirect flights and offset customers for hotel rooms, food, transport and other expenses related to upgraded timetables.
Shares in airline companies have been reduced in European negotiation. Although losses relax from Midmorning, IAG’s shares, the parent company of British Airways, Aer Lingus, Iberia and two other airlines, decreased by about 1 %. Air France-KLM shares decreased by about 1.6 %.
Ryanair, an Irish airline, said she had added eight “rescue” flights to her Friday and Saturday program between Dublin and London Stansted Airports.
Lauren leatherby; Melissa eddy and Lisa contributed to the report.
