NEWS FLASH
Europe’s busiest airport, London Heathrow, will be closed all day Friday after a fire at a nearby electrical substation that supplies it with power. At least 1.351 flights are expected to be cancelled. The development has resulted in the cancellation of Air Serbia’s service between Belgrade and Heathrow, Croatia Airlines’ flight between Zagreb and Heathrow, as well as British Airways’ rotation between Heathrow and Zagreb. The cause of the fire is not yet known.
Why didnt OU and JU reroute to LGW or STN?
ReplyDeleteYou think it is possible to just like that reroute when there are a number of long haul and ultra long haul that are supposed to land now that need to find an alternative to land. Not to mention that those airports themselves are operating at full capacity,
DeleteYou can't just reroute a flight like that. Gatwick operates at nearly full capacity and wouldn't be able to handle many more flights.
DeleteI don't think that's the main reason although very valid.
DeleteCompanies with not try routing as it is easier if they assist passengers in their bases than in London. Imagine someone has a connection, they arrive to London, but further flight is cancelled so they have to get transfer, accomodation etc. Instead, airlines will move to the other airports, if available, passengers who wants that, others will get hotel in their bases/ often homes of the passengers, or just be rerouted to next flights of their own tomorrow and later..
Gatwick is at full capacity, iirc it's the busiest single-runway airport in the world so no surprises there
DeleteBut also, it's a lot easier to just reroute them to their final destination with an alliance member or another airline,since they would need to coordinate a lot more with other airlines. For example, if someone had a ZAG-LHR-YYZ flight, it's easier to just send them there via another hub like Frankfurt, Warsaw or Zurich, rather than fly to Stansted and leave them stranded.
@Anon 0944: This was just a question so we could exchange points of view, not a critic. Thank you Anon 1113, I have not had that in mind.
DeleteA significant disruption. FR24 indicates the diversion of planes en route to LHR to various airports across Europe or returning to their original departure points.
ReplyDeleteA little break for British air traffic controllers
ReplyDeleteBut nightmare after establishing flights again.
DeleteUff that';s a week long disruption for BA until their scheduled goes back to normal.
ReplyDeleteDo the airlines have an obligation to put passengers who's flights to LHR have been canceled to hotels in Zagreb and Belgrade?
ReplyDeleteI'm not familiar with European laws in this regard but force majeure events like this where it's not the airline's fault (natural disasters, extreme weather) generally exempt the airline from paying for compensation without any additional clauses in the ticket. Aka the answer is no, but most airlines do it anyway as a damage to their reputation hurts more than the compensation money
DeleteDuty of care always applies, force majeure or not. EU261 compensation has nothing to do with it.
DeleteW6 flights to LTN will be incredibly popular the next few days.
ReplyDeleteI don't think they do because this is an extraordinary circumstance but they will likely do it. When I missed my Air Serbia connection to Sofia from Zagreb around a month ago due to late arrival of aircraft they put us in a very nice hotel - Mona and we got lunch, dinner and transfer.
DeleteIn before they blame Russia for this.
ReplyDeleteTrump did it
DeleteWhat a shame for UK, they do not have additional power supply. Just one transformer burnt.
ReplyDeleteThey got a rid of all diesel generators, because they are bad for environment.
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