The airport had enough power, says National Grid

Heathrow Airport had enough power to stay open on Friday, most of the day near the London hub was closed due to fire in a nearby power substation. Of Britain National Grid,

Heathrow – Europe’s busiest airport – closed last week when a nearby power substation caught fire, which supplies it with electricity.

In the first reported comments reported by the Financial Times, the CEO of the National Grid John Petigrav said that although the substation in question was damaged in the “unprecedented” fire, the power supply to Heathro was working normally throughout the day.

“There was no lack of capacity from the substations,” he said. “Each substation can individually give heathro enough strength.”

The National Grid, a publicly listed company, owns a high-voltage power transmission network in England and Wales. The firm on Monday confirmed Petigrav’s comments with CNBC via email.

A spokesman for Heathro argued, however, it was impossible for Kithro to conduct uninterrupted operations after the fire last week.

He said in email comments on Monday, “National Grid CEO John Petigrav said,” He never saw such transformer failure in his 30 years in the industry. “” Hundreds of important systems at the airport were required to operate safely and then securely and then systematically. Given the size and operational complexity of the heathro, it was a significant challenge to rebuild operations safely after the dissolution of this magnitude. “

Speaking to the BBC on Saturday, Heathro CEO Thomas WoldB defended the airport’s reaction, which he termed as a “major event”.

“We have other substations, but to take them time,” he said. “The situation was not created at Heathro Airport, it was built outside the airport and we had to deal with the results.”

Heathro has ordered an internal inquiry into the shutdown and its crisis management plan, while the UK government has initiated its investigation into the incident.

According to the Reuters of the news agency, on Friday, over 1,300 flights were set to unload or arrive in Heathro. More than 120 which were already airborne when Heathro was closed, turned at other airports or returned to the city of his departure. The disruption is widely expected to cost airlines at a cost of millions of dollars.

As the situation came to light on Friday, European travel and holiday stocks saw a widespread sales. Owner of British Airways IAG About 1.9% of your value, while Lufthansa 1.7%lost, and Easyjet It was about 1%below. Several regional airline stocks reduced Friday’s trading session despite recovering from the deep losses seen earlier in the session.

On Monday, Europe’s travel and holiday shares were trading about 0.4% more, with the IAG 0.9% and Lufthansa was growing 0.3% in London at 1:20 pm.

In a statement on Friday, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) – a business body representing 340 airlines that are collectively responsible for 80% of global air traffic – slammed the heathro’s reaction to the substation fire.

IATA Director General Willy Walsh said, “This is still another case of Heathro, which allows both the passengers and the airlines to reduce.” “How it is that significant infrastructure – national and global importance – is completely dependent on a single power source without an alternative. If it is – as it seems – it is a clear plan failure by the airport.”

Walsh said that this incident also questioned who should tolerate the cost of taking care of disintegrated passengers.

“We should find an appropriate allocation of the cost of passenger care compared to the airlines,” he said, when the infrastructure fails, “he said.

Stephen Roney, an expert in Tourism Economics at Oxford Economics, estimated a note on Friday that the closure would translate £ 4.5 million ($ 5.82 million) in the lost tourist revenue for the UK, while Jonathan Owens, Senior Lecturer in the operations and supply chain management at the business school of Sailford, told CNBC on Monday. ,

He said, “The costs associated with removing flights at alternative airports are important, in case of both financial implications and logical challenges,” he said via email.

“Flights going to other airports will need to cover additional fuel, air traffic control services and airport fees … Passengers affected by flight variations or cancellation are very much likely to take compensation due to hotel housing, food and taxis, which add costs for all airlines.”