The Heathrow Airline Operators’ Committee, representing over 90 airlines, has threatened legal action if a settlement regarding costs from a recent day-long closure is not reached.
The closure was caused by a fire at an electricity substation, impacting approximately 1,300 flights and affecting about 250,000 passengers.
Nigel Wicking, CEO of the committee, has expressed dissatisfaction with Heathrow’s communication regarding the situation and called for an independent investigation into the incident.
Travel Extra estimates airline and supplier costs from the outage will be around €20m for the day, considering passenger expenses and aircraft costs. A total of 34 rotations from Ireland were cancelled, 17 Dublin, 7 Belfast, 4 Cork & Shanon, 3 Derry and 1 Knock.
Analysts warn that compensation claims for delays could reduce profits for airlines such as British Airways and Aer Lingus, though the outage may be labelled a force majeure event, exempting compensation requirements for passengers.
Nigel Wicking, chief executive of Heathrow Airline Operators’ Committee, shared: The situation was not justifiable given the amount of money that has been spent on Heathrow over the years and the fact that it is the most expensive airport in the world. We hope the matter can be amicably settled at some point in time” but said, “if we don’t get good enough recourse and repayment in terms of the costs, then yes, there might be a case for legal action. In some of these situations that’s the only course once you’ve gone through everything else
Heathrow CEO Thomas Woldbye shared: “So, was I proud of the situation we found ourselves in? Of course not. But I am incredibly grateful for, and proud of, what was achieved to get us out of the situation in such a short amount of time by teams of people we all rely on across the entire airport eco-system, but who rarely get the credit they deserve.”
“This was an unprecedented issue which began with a fire at an off-airport substation, in less than 24 hours the entire airport was rebooted from a standing start and we delivered a full schedule from Saturday onwards.
“There are two reviews into the systems and response both at Heathrow and with the wider grid infrastructure. We will support these and lessons will be learned where needed.
“Every penny we invest in our airport infrastructure is approved by airlines and our regulator. On a project-by-project basis, they oversee and influence how we build and maintain Heathrow.”
