Ryanair, Easyjet and Virgin Heathrow statements in full as fire causes travel chaos

Heathrow Airport, one of Europe's busiest travel hubs, is closed for the first time in over a decade, owing to an electrical fire at one of the substations supplying its electricity.

In a statement released at 2:24am on March 21, the airport said: "Due to a fire at an electrical substation supplying the airport, Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage."

Airlines that operate all over the world have been affected, with passengers unaware of the status of potential connecting flights, if they should make their way to the airport or not.

We've collected all the statements currently made by airlines operating out of Heathrow Airport.

British Airways

British Airways is the largest operator out of Heathrow Airport, with over 300 of their flights due to leave on Friday before the power outage forced cancellations.

They were one of the first operators to react to the outage just before 8am. In their initial statement, they were shy to state they would be cancelling flights:

"This will clearly have a significant impact on our operation and our customers and we're working as quickly as possible to update them on their travel options for the next 24 hours and beyond."

Just past 1pm, they released the following statement:

"Following the power outage that has caused the closure of London Heathrow Airport, we have had to cancel all short-haul flights that were due to operate to and from the airport today. Our teams are currently working hard to review our long-haul schedule as well as the implications for our schedule for tomorrow and beyond.

"We will update our customers as soon as possible and we continue to ask them not to travel to Heathrow Airport, but to check on ba.com for the latest flight information."

Passengers booked to fly to or from Heathrow on Saturday or Sunday are being given the option to rebook to a later date for free.

The airline said it has “provided ground transport options where possible” for passengers on flights diverted to other UK airports.

On their website they "kindly ask customers to contact us via phone only if they’re due to travel imminently, to allow us to help affected customers as quickly as possible."

Virgin Atlantic

The airline operates flights from Heathrow to many American cities as well as destinations like South Africa and Dehli. As news of the disruption came in, they released the following statement:

"Unfortunately this has had a significant impact on our flying programme both into and out of Heathrow and all Virgin Atlantic arriving and departing flights are cancelled until 21:30 GMT on 21 March, with the rest of today's schedule currently under review.

"We're incredibly sorry for the disruption this will cause and are working with our teams to ensure customers can complete their journeys as quickly as possible."

They also posted that wait times for their helplines are longer than usual due to the disruption: "All of our services are very busy right now due to the disruption caused by the Heathrow Airport Closure. Wait times will be longer than usual to get through to one of us, but we appreciate your patience and will get to you as soon as we can."

Lufthansa

The German airline operates mainly out of Terminal 2 (T2) from Heathrow, one of the terminals confirmed to be without power in an earlier statement from London Fire Brigade.

A statement on their website confirms: "All Lufthansa and Lufthansa Group flights to/from London Heathrow are or will be cancelled."

Aer Lingus

The Irish airline released a statement on their website saying: "all Aer Lingus services to and from London Heathrow today are being cancelled until further notice. Impacted customers are being contacted directly."

EasyJet

EasyJet, which does not operate at Heathrow, has said it will use larger-than-planned aircraft on key routes on Friday and throughout the weekend to reduce the impact from Heathrow's closure

Ryanair

Ryanair has promised "up to 8 rescue flights between Dublin and London Stansted, 4 on Friday and 4 on Saturday to rescue passengers affected by today’s Heathrow closure. Ryanair will operate 4 extra flights between Dublin and Stansted on Friday afternoon as well as 4 extra flights on Sat morning. These flights can be booked on http://Ryanair.com from 09:30AM this morning."