- Dozens of flights were in the air heading for Heathrow Airport when it closed due to a power outage.
- Passengers were on board for as long as seven hours before landing back where they started.
- Qantas diverted two flights to Paris and plans to send passengers on a nine-hour bus ride to London.
More than 20 flights turned back to their departure point after London Heathrow Airport closed on Friday due to a power outage.
Cirium, an aviation analytics firm, tracked 36 flights heading to Heathrow that had to divert, with 22 becoming flights to nowhere.
Passengers on United Airlines Flight 14 and Virgin Atlantic Flight 166 were on board for nearly seven hours before landing back where they took off, per data from Flightradar24. Both flights U-turned over the Atlantic Ocean, returning to Newark and Jamaica respectively.
An American Airlines flight from Dallas/Fort Worth made it as far as the Canadian border before turning back in a six-hour ordeal. Another flight from New York, circled seven times over Maine before returning to JFK three hours after departing.
Heathrow is the world’s second-busiest international airport by passenger numbers, meaning the disruption has affected travelers globally.
Japan Airlines Flight 43 and Air India Flight 129 had to return to Tokyo and Mumbai respectively, in six-hour flights to nowhere.
British Airways is Heathrow’s largest operator, and Cirium tracked six of its flights that diverted. One returned to San Francisco after six hours, turning around over Manitoba.
Three BA flights were able to go to London Gatwick Airport instead of Heathrow, per Cirium.
Air Canada and JetBlue diverted flights to Labrador’s remote Goose Bay Airport, which is primarily used as a military base.
Some passengers coming from Singapore and Perth, Australia were diverted to Paris. Qantas said it would transport people on the two flights to London via bus — a journey of about nine hours.
The chaos is likely to continue across the weekend. Heathrow said it expected “significant disruption over the coming days.”
Neil Glynn, a managing director at Alvarez & Marsal, told Business Insider the rise of apps meant airlines could better communicate with passengers and allow them to rebook or be rerouted more quickly.
“It is clearly more difficult if the airport is closed, but real-time communication with passengers allows them to change plans early, and likely avoids them traveling to the airport unnecessarily,” he said.
“Digital investments should also smoothen the rebooking or even re-routing process, either via alternative London airports or when Heathrow re-opens.”
