Heathrow warned by airlines about power supply days before shutdown

Heathrow Airport was warned about the "resilience" of its power supply in the days before a fire which shut down the airport for more than a day last month.

Nigel Wicking, chief executive of Heathrow Airline Operators' Committee, a group representing airlines, told MPs on Wednesday that he spoke to Heathrow twice in the week before the closure on 21 March.

He questioned why the airport was closed as long as it was and why it was not more prepared considering its importance.

However, Heathrow boss Thomas Woldbye called the fire an "unlikely event" and defended the length of the closure, saying he had to make "very serious safety decisions".

Mr Woldbye apologised to the more than 300,000 engers whose journeys were disrupted.

He offered his "deepest regrets" adding that the "situation was unprecedented". The airport was shutdown after a fire at an electrical substation.

The chaos at Heathrow has raised concerns about the reliability of the major transport hub - and brought into question the UK's energy resilience more broadly.

Speaking to MPs on the transport committee, Mr Wicking said he raised cases of "theft of wire and cable around some of the power supply" which he said temporarily took out runway lights, which are critical to enger safety.

"I wanted to understand better the overall resilience of the airport."

He said he had spoken to the Team Heathrow director on 15 March about his concerns - six days before the fire - and the chief operating officer and chief customer officer on 19 March - two days before the fire.

Mr Woldbye said the airport had to rely on contracts it has with Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks for making the network resilient, and to improve that "comes at a very high cost", which would raise costs for airlines, and engers.

However, Mr Wicking said Heathrow is "already the most expensive airport in the world".

"From an airline perspective, we expect resilience, we expect there to be the capability there and the understanding of when a power supply or an asset is not available, what will you do next, and how quickly will you bring it back":[]}