Flights are now landing and taking off at Heathrow again after a fire at a nearby electrical substation brought Europe's busiest airport to a standstill for most of the day
Heathrow says it is prioritising customers diverted to European airports, and warns people not to travel to the airport unless advised by their airline
The airport hopes to run a full service on Saturday - chief executive Thomas Woldbye apologises to passengers, calling the incident "as big as it gets for our airport"
Counter-terrorism police are leading the investigation, but the Met Police says there's currently no indication of foul play
A source from the airport says back-up generators kicked in, but they weren't enough to power the whole airport - an air industry boss says it raises "serious questions"
Watch: Smoking substation near Heathrow seen from above
A live shot of a runway at Heathrow Airport shows the first plane landing after a fire at a nearby electricity substation forced it to close earlier today.
The British Airways plane touched down just after 18:00 GMT.
Image source, EBUVirgin Atlantic says it expects to run 'near full schedule' tomorrow, including flights landing at Heathrow.
The airline says the substation fire had a "significant impact" and all flights due to leave Heathrow today are cancelled.
It has also shared the current list of cancelled flights for 22 March:
For those affected, staff will email customers with rebooking details, Virgin Atlantic says.
Image source, EPAWoldbye apologises to passengers for today's disruption, saying it was caused by "outside factors".
He's asked who will pay for the costs of the disruption.
The CEO says: "There are procedures in place for that," adding that the airport doesn't have "liabilities in place" for incidents like what happened today.
That's all from Thomas Woldbye for now. We'll bring you a summary of the key points shortly.
Woldbye then explains what has taken time for Heathrow to handle the issue today.
He says shutting down the system and starting it back up takes a long time.
He adds that, apart from anyone getting hurt, this incident is "as big as it gets" for Heathrow.
In fact, he says, the airport is recovering "quite fast" given the number of systems involved.
On backup supplies, which have been questioned today, he says Heathrow has three substations with a back-up transformer.
After the fire, his teams had to rebuild the airport's supply, meaning "thousands of systems" had to be restarted and tested.
Woldbye apologises to those whose travel plans were affected today and thanks everyone involved in restoring the airport’s operations.
He describes it as an “unprecedented incident” that caused a major power loss equivalent to “a mid-size city”.
He says they would only close the airport due to “severe safety concerns.”
The CEO of Heathrow Airport is then asked what the situation will be like there tomorrow.
"We expect to be back in full operation ... as a normal day," he says.
He adds that passengers should come to Heathrow "normally" as they planned.
Image source, EPAWe're hearing from Thomas Woldbye, chief executive of Heathrow Airport.
He is asked what he expects this evening.
He says incoming flights from Europe will be prioritised this afternoon, followed by some departures from Heathrow in the evening.
"That is about it," he says. "We're talking about very few aircraft tonight."
Andrew Dawkins
BBC West Midlands
Image source, Getty ImagesPupils from Nuneaton have had to spend another day on a beach in Barcelona
Up to 100 pupils are stranded in Spain after Heathrow's closure disrupted their journey back to the UK.
The year 5 pupils from Nuneaton were due to fly home from Barcelona today.
Now, head teacher Diane Compton-Belcher is looking for another airline to bring them back tonight.
If that’s not possible, she tells BBC Coventry and Warwickshire Radio that she and her 10 staff members will "do our very best to get them back tomorrow".
For now, the children are making the most of their time on the beach.
More now from British Airways, which has just announced it has clearance for eight long-haul flights to leave Heathrow this evening.
It says it is "urgently contacting customers to let them know so they can make their way to the airport" from 17:00 GMT.
BA says the only customers who should make their way to the airport are those booked onto the following flights:
British Airways has been given clearance for eight long-haul flights to depart Heathrow Airport today from 19:00 GMT, the airline says in a statement.
We'll bring you more from the update shortly.
Jonathan Josephs
Business reporter
Image source, GettyTurkish Airlines is swapping in bigger planes to help more passengers reach their destinations
Airlines are adjusting their schedules to help passengers reach their destinations after Heathrow’s closure.
One approach is something they call "regauging" – swapping smaller planes for bigger ones where possible.
For example, instead of using an A320 for flights from Istanbul to London Gatwick, Turkish Airlines is using A330s, which can carry more passengers.
Other airlines are making similar moves.
One challenge they might face is whether airports can handle the extra passengers.
More travellers mean more suitcases, which means more baggage handlers are needed to process the extra load.
By Rob England, Wesley Stephenson and Krystina Shveda
More than 1,300 flights have been disrupted by the closure of Heathrow Airport today, according to the air traffic website flightradar24.com.
As of 14:30, it says:
For those diverted, Amsterdam and Gatwick airports are the most common destinations so far.
Just under half of the flights affected belong to British Airways, according to the data.
Virgin Atlantic is the next most affected, with 68 flights, followed by Lufthansa.
The website says the live figures are gathered using multiple sources and are subject to change throughout the day.
We've just received a fuller statement from Heathrow Airport, which says it can restart some flights later today and hopes to be fully operational tomorrow:
"Our teams have worked tirelessly since the incident to ensure a speedy recovery. We're pleased to say we're now safely able to begin some flights later today.
"Our first flights will be repatriation flights and relocating aircraft. Please do not travel to the airport unless your airline has advised you to do so.
"We will now work with the airlines on repatriating the passengers who were diverted to other airports in Europe. We hope to run a full operation tomorrow and will provide further information shortly.
"Our priority remains the safety of our passengers and those working at the airport. As the busiest airport in Europe, Heathrow uses as much energy as a small city, therefore getting back to a full and safe operation takes time. We apologise for the inconvenience caused by this incident."
We can bring you more now from the latest update from Heathrow Airport.
It says it hopes to "run a full operation tomorrow and will provide further information shortly", having just announced it is now safely able to "restart" flights.
It says its teams have worked "tirelessly since the incident to ensure a speedy recovery".
It also urges passengers not to travel to the airport unless the airline has advised them to do so.
Heathrow Airport says it's now "safely able to restart flights".
In a statement shared on X, it says it will prioritise "repatriation and relocation of aircraft".
We'll bring you more from its update shortly.
Image source, Getty ImagesBritish Airways has announced a short while ago it has cancelled all its short-haul flights to and from Heathrow today.
Now most of its long-haul flights have also been cancelled, according to chairman and CEO Sean Doyle.
"We hope that power will be restored as soon as possible. But even when that does happen, this incident will have a substantial impact on our airline and customers for many days to come, with disruption to journeys expected over the coming days," he says.
Doyle adds that unexpected diversions mean some planes and crew are now in locations they weren’t meant to be. And because crew can only work a set number of hours, the airline faces the challenge of getting new teams to operate those flights, he says.
Ruth Cadbury, who chairs the Transport Select Committee, says there are questions about Heathrow Airport's resilience that need answering.
Cadbury, who represents Brentford near Heathrow, hopes we'll learn more about the cause of the fire later today.
She tells BBC News: “The concern is it was dependent on one substation for its power, and that does raise questions about infrastructure resilience.”
She also wonders if grid capacity played a role.
“Here in west London, we do have an issue about the overall grid capacity challenge in the boroughs of Hounslow, Hillingdon and Ealing, because the data centres are huge users of electricity but I think it is a question for Heathrow Airport, about whether they had previously considered this resilience concern themselves.”
She says the select committee will, in time, hold a session with key figures to examine what happened.
Rich Preston
News correspondent
We've been hearing the phrase "Critical National Infrastructure" a lot.
So what is it?
The UK's National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) defines it as "facilities, systems, sites, information, people, networks and processes, necessary for a country to function and upon which daily life depends".
The NPSA is the government agency responsible for reducing the vulnerability of national infrastructure. It's part of the Security Service, better known as MI5.
The UK's national security strategy, known as the Integrated Review, highlights the need to keep these sites running smoothly and safely.
Usually, we think about that in terms of preventing terror attacks or cyber threats. But today’s chaos has been caused by a single fire at one power station.
Whether that was deliberate or not, we don’t yet know. But there are serious questions about why better resilience wasn’t in place to protect such a vital part of British infrastructure.
Image source, Getty ImagesHere's the latest as disruption continues for passengers travelling to and from Europe's busiest airport:
What we know
What we don't know
British Airways says it has cancelled all short-haul flights to and from Heathrow today.
"Our teams are currently working hard to review our long-haul schedule," the airline says, as well as looking into the implications "for our schedule for tomorrow and beyond".
