What Heathrow passengers can legally do if flight is cancelled as airport closes until midnight
Heathrow Airport, the largest in the UK, is closed for the full day (21 March) after a fire at a nearby electrical substation caused a power outage.
Over 1,300 flights are expected to be affected in some way, while thousands of homes were left without power and around 150 people had to be evacuated.
The airport said in a statement: "Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage across the airport due to a large fire at a nearby electrical substation. Whilst fire crews are responding to the incident, we do not have clarity on when power may be reliably restored.
“To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, we have no choice but to close Heathrow until 23h59 on 21 March 2025. We expect significant disruption over the coming days and passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens.
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“We will provide an update when more information on the resumption of operations is available. We know this will be disappointing for passengers and we want to reassure that we are working as hard as possible to resolve the situation.”
For a lot of people hoping to travel through the skies, the closure of Heathrow is an absolute disaster to your travel plans, and there are some things you can legally do to try and salvage the situation.
Can Heathrow passengers claim compensation?
The UK's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) warns that if the disruption wasn't the airline's fault, then compensation isn't a given.
In general, if the airline is at fault then passengers can claim compensation, with the amount varying depending on how long their journey is and how long they've been delayed.
Since Heathrow is closed today due to a fire at a nearby substation, this is likely to class as 'extraordinary circumstances' and airlines may not be paying out compensation.
If you've been affected by the disruption then you might want to ask, but be prepared to be told it's not their fault and they don't have to pay out any compensation to you.
What can passengers ask for?
Even if you can't claim compensation, that doesn't mean that you're not legally entitled to anything.
If you're departing from a UK airport (which Heathrow is), arriving at a UK airport from an EU or UK airline or arriving in an EU airport on a UK airline then your flight is covered by UK law.
This means the airline has to either provide you with a refund if you want one for your cancelled flight or you can demand they arrange you alternative travel.
You can demand your money back for flights you haven't used, or you can tell your airline you still want to travel whether that be as soon as possible or on another date and they will have to do their best to get you there.
What assistance is available?
Passengers are still entitled to assistance from the airline if extraordinary circumstances disrupt their flight.
If your flight is cancelled then airlines need to look after you, which can include them providing things like vouchers for food and drink, refunding the cost of calls you make to them to sort things out and putting you up in accommodation if you're stuck.
The CAA says your airline 'must provide you with these items until it is able to fly you to your destination' regardless of the length of delay or the cause.
With a major disruption like this airlines will struggle to sort out support for all passengers.
The CAA says 'you have the right to organise reasonable care and assistance yourself, then claim the cost back later', and they advise that you keep all receipts so you have a record of all the money you spend.
However, they also warn that if you decide to splash out on luxuries in the expectation that the airline will pick up the bill at a later date then you may end up being sorely disappointed.
If you want reimbursement then keep it reasonable and keep receipts.
Joe Harker