Flights from airports in Denmark, Norway and Sweden to London were cancelled on Friday after Heathrow Airport was closed due to a fire which broke out at a nearby power substation.
The fire at the substation in Hayes caused a local power outage including at Heathrow. Over 1,300 flights in total are expected to be affected on Friday according to tracking site Flightradar24.
Scandinavian airline SAS said all of its 14 flights from Heathrow to Nordic capitals Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen were cancelled on Friday.
The earliest SAS departure was at 7.05am from Stockholm, while the latest was scheduled to depart from Copenhagen at 8.40pm.
Conversely, there were 15 scheduled departures from Heathrow to the three Nordic capitals, all of which have also been cancelled.
SAS or British Airways flights between Heathrow and other airports in the Scandinavian countries are also likely to be affected.
A BA flight from Heathrow to Denmark’s second-largest airport Billund appears to have been cancelled. The flight, scheduled to arrive in Billund at 12.05pm and return to Heathrow departing at 1.05pm, is cancelled according to the Heathrow Airport website, although it has not been updated on Billund’s website at the time of writing.
Billund Airport has advised passengers to check for updates from both the airlines and the relevant airports.
In Sweden, seven departures and arrivals are affected at Stockholm Arlanda, and three at Gothenburg Landvetter airports.
Information on cancelled Swedish flights can be found on airport operator Swedavia’s website as well as via the relevant airlines. Swedavia has advised passengers to contact their airline or travel provider if they have specific questions about their trip.
SAS Norway said that “all of SAS's twelve flights to London Heathrow today have been cancelled due to the incidents at the airport.”
“Affected passengers will receive information directly from us regarding their travel,” Øystein Schmidt of SAS Norway told Norwegian newswire NTB. British Airways has also cancelled all of its flights between Oslo and London Heathrow.
Following the fire on Thursday night, Heathrow announced it would remain closed until midnight on Friday due passenger and staff safety precautions.
Nearby Gatwick Airport said in a statement it was “accepting redirected flights as needed” and is receiving diverted flights from cities including Singapore, Lagos, Cape Town, and Doha, according to the Guardian.
Gatwick, and other London airports including Stansted to the north, do not have sufficient capacity to fully absorb all of Heathrow’s flight traffic, however.
It should be noted that not all flights to Heathrow have yet been confirmed as cancelled by the Copenhagen Airport website, but the Heathrow Airport website states all flights are cancelled and that the airport is closed until midnight on Friday.
For example, British Airways flights from Copenhagen to Heathrow are not displaying as cancelled on the Copenhagen Airport website at the time of writing, but the Heathrow Airport website states they are cancelled.
Flights from Norway, Sweden and Denmark to other London airports including Gatwick and Stansted are not affected by the Heathrow situation at the current time.
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