https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/article/londons-heathrow-airport-closed-for-the-day-after-a-substation-fire-disrupting-travel/

excerpts—-

“LONDON — A large fire near London’s Heathrow Airport knocked out power Friday to Europe’s busiest flight hub, forcing it to shut and disrupting global travel for hundreds of thousands of passengers.

Heathrow said it didn’t know when power would be restored -- raising the possibility that the shutdown would last longer than just the day, as previously expected.

At least 1,350 flights to and from Heathrow were affected, flight tracking service FlightRadar 24 said, and the impact was likely to last several days as passengers try to reschedule their travel and airlines work to get planes and crew to the right places.”

”Unclear what caused the fire but foul play not suspected

It was too early to determine what sparked the huge blaze about 2 miles (3 kilometers) from the airport, but there’s “no suggestion” of foul play, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said.

The Metropolitan Police force said counterterrorism detectives were leading the investigation because of their ability to find the cause quickly and because of the location of the electrical substation fire and its impact on critical national infrastructure.

Miliband said the fire, which took seven hours to control, also knocked out a backup power supply to the airport. Heathrow said in a statement that it had no choice but to close the airport for the day.

“We expect significant disruption over the coming days, and passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens,” the airport said.

Our flight to LHR for tomorrow was cancelled late last night. I'm so disappointed.

I would be too Chartreuse. Have you been given, or are you looking for alternate flights?

Gatwick maybe?

This started yesterday evening. Parts of the airport have power back but there are unlikely to be any flights before midnight. (It's currently 15.38 here)

I read about this last night and wondered if my son is affected since he flew out yesterday from Dulles to meet his cruise ship in the Mediterranean. Traveling is getting to be a pain.

roxsol -

We have the option of rebooking for Sunday (currently in online chat hell) to LHR, but considering switching to Manchester or Paris, possibly Dublin. But we would lose yet another day to travel. Sunday is currently showing as "all go" on flights, but... We would likely be booked as standby and would probably end up with really crappy seats.

My spouse really wants to go as he needs to get some pre-retirement business done at the bank, and we had hoped to begin house-hunting. He may yet go, and I may stay here. We shall see.

Best of luck to you, Chartreuse.

Crappy seats would not be an option for me. I’m a poor flyer and need my space.

Gatwick seems to specialize in serving no or low-frills carriers. Through ticketing and baggage checking opportunities for a further ultimate destination are limited.

I have a love/hate relationship with Heathrow. I've been to and through it innumerable times. Doing so can be the height of convenience and inconvenience at the same time.

Depending on the geography of the trip, for many destinations, Schiphol (Amsterdam) , de Gaule (Paris) and even Frankfurt or Munich, are better choices. These and others seem to be better run/more organized in any event.

All airports are a vile experience imo, but I have resolved never to go via Charles de Gaulle again if I can possibly help it. It's awful and you'll see that opinion widely voiced on the internet. Schiphol has lost my luggage. Heathrow never has.

British (especially English) opinions about anything French are predictable. I'll politely withhold details of my views and very many experiences with your fair land, a place with people as wonderful as any to be found anywhere but, unfortunately, with very low standards of what constitutes acceptable levels of service and functionality of institutions and businesses. Problems with which people seem to accept with some fatalism. Could that be the source of the "stiff upper lip" reputation, how to accept and deal with a multitude of problems that seem to arise but shouldn't happen in the first place.

Well, hopefully Heathrow will be up and running soon, and no one is forced to end up at an airport they don’t like. 🤠 And most of all, safe travels.

I very much resent the implication that I am in any way a francophobe. That is a lazy generalisation and a national stereotype and it is far beneath you. I gave an opinion, based on experience and reading. Sorry if you disagree but that doesn't make my view invalid.

I agree, lots of things in the UK are embarassingly rubbish and I honestly don't know why millions of tourists, including Americans, bother to come here every year. But that doesn't change my opinion of CDG airport.

It sounds as if they are doing everything possible to get things back to normal as soon as possible. With planes scattered all over thr map and crews in screwed up schedules, it’s going to take a while to re-position planes and crews to get things back to some kind of normal and also get people back to their destinations.

I feel bad for those who won’t get to fulfill their journeys at all due to the disruption.

I flew in and out of both Gatwick and then Heathrow many times in my career. Once was just following the infamous shoe bomber incident when everything and everybody was upset and which eventually kicked off the clear bag policy. I could fill an entire post about that nightmare of getting home after being re-scheduled from my original date. I was very lucky to be flying Business class home too.

I almost feel the same about CDG as Floral, but only have 2 times thru there to complain about.

CDG is quite literally the worst airport I've ever flown into or through. I intentionally schedule flights to avoid it.

I've flown into/through airports on six continents, and can confidently say that of all of them, bar none, are a better experience than CDG.

So onto an update: My spouse is flying out to the UK on Sunday, but I'm staying here to work on some details on this end. :)

I intentionally schedule flights to avoid both UK and France - I prefer Frankfort or Zurich. Fortunately, there are nonstop flights to Rome from LAX.

Lars, how do you like LAX? I think it is the airport closest to you and of course you use it.

Chartreuse Scorpion, do you ever visit Paris, travelling directly from North America? If so, how do you get there and how do you leave?

My house in L.A. was very close to LAX (about 8 minutes drive), and so it was very convenient for us.

I did not like driving to or from the airport, but we always took taxis, which charged us more than the fare because the drive was so short.

I did not mind the airport itself, but we always got there early so that we would have time to to through long lines, if there were any. However, the airport is run very efficiently, and so wait times were never that bad for me, but I can understand how people who are not used to large and busy airports could find it daunting. It is fairly compact, unlike DFW or Phoenix, and so that helps.

We are now just five minutes from the Palm Springs airport, which is very small and extremely manageable, but it has very few direct flights. However, it does have nonstop flights to Mexico City, Vancouver, Calgary (and possibly Edmonton), Toronto, and Montreal. If we wanted to go to Europe from here, we could change planes in DFW, Chicago, New York, or Toronto.

" we always took taxis, which charged us more than the fare because the drive was so short.

lars, some airports charge taxis access fees, that might be the reason.

LAX has terrible traffic. I saw an interesting story recently somewhere, it may have been in the LA Times. The traffic is generally worse there than at other US airports because compared to others, it has a higher percentage of passengers whose trips originate or end in LA and less public transit services carrying passengers to or from the terminals.

At other busy airports like DFW, Atlanta, O'Hare, a higher percentage of travelers pass through to change planes. LAX has a lower percentage of passengers in transit. Thus, think of each plane that departs and how many cars carrying one or two passengers has to drive up to the terminal (or shuttles for rides from parking) to get there. And in reverse, how many individual vehicle trips are required to take arriving passengers away from the terminals.

We flew into LAX last year. Relatives were very adamant they would not. They are from Chicago and refuse to use OHare too. We did not find it a problem. Renting a car from there is not a treat. They are all off sight but still it worked fine in the end.

Yes, the car rental offices are all offsite (not sight) but that's getting to be standard at airports. You would have experienced the airport traffic when departing and approaching the terminal in a shuttle bus and not driving in. Riding and driving are a bit different.

Not too long ago, I dropped off someone at the LAX International Terminal, it's in the cross bar bottom of the long-armed U shaped road. I took the freeway that runs to the south of the airport (Hwy 105). From the offramp to the International Terminal is less than 2 miles. The GPS said arrival would be in 30 minutes. Thinking there was something wrong, I stopped the guidance, entered and started to a different destination, ended that, and put in the terminal again. Same answer, maybe a minute or two had ticked by. It wound up taking a bit over 25 minutes.

Thanks, Lars. It’s great that you have the Palm Springs International Airport.

It sounds like LAX hasn’t changed. Crowded and long lineups. And not the cleanest. Generally a zoo..

We haven’t flown into LAX for a few years. .There has been no reason to do so. We have so many direct flights out of Edmonton or Calgary now, it is very easy to avoid it.

Elmer -

We mostly visit Paris from London, but we have flown La Compagnie from the US to Orly - we take a positioning flight to EWR or we fly into LGA and spend a day or two in NYC before we head for Newark. But most of our visits to Paris are via Eurostar from London, or we buy a cheap flight out of the UK to Paris Orly.

I've heard of that airline and see that its prices are quite competitive compared to others- we too fly only business class on long flights. I've also taken Eurostar very many times on trips where it serves the itinerary, including its Benelux service to/from Paris.

La Compagnie's routes don't provide an easy possibility for me, coming from the West Coast. I guess I might consider changing planes at Newark but I prefer direct flights. Doing so would require coming in the day before or taking a red eye, neither of which is particularly attractive.

Otherwise, West Coast flights go to CDG as do most other North American flights. I've never had a problem there, including several times with a destination other than Paris and the itinerary for the connecting flight was routed through there. Sorry for others who have.