Air India resumes operations from London's Heathrow Airport

Air India Saturday announced that the airline has resumed operations from London's Heathrow Airport after the disruption following Friday's power outage.

“Our operations to and from London Heathrow (LHR) have recommenced after the disruption at the airport yesterday due to a power outage. Today’s flight AI111 was on schedule and other flights, to and from London, are expected to operate as per schedule. Flight AI161 of 21 March, which was diverted to Frankfurt, is expected to leave Frankfurt at 14:05 pm local time,” Air India said in a statement.

On Friday, Air India said its operations to and from the London Heathrow airport were disrupted, with one flight returning to Mumbai, another diverting to Frankfurt and other flights remaining cancelled due to a temporary suspension of operations at the airport.


Travel plans of hundreds of passengers who were scheduled to fly to LHR, including from Indian cities, were disrupted.

Following a significant power outage, operations at London Heathrow (LHR) were suspended till 11:59 pm on March 21.

According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, Air India has 6 flights to LHR on March 21, with a total of 1,843 seats.

Heathrow Airport closure

On Friday, flights to and from London's Heathrow Airport were cancelled due to a fire at a nearby electrical substation that caused a significant power outage.

The incident occurred just before midnight on Thursday, leading to the airport's closure until 11:59 p.m. on Friday for safety reasons. The London Fire Brigade responded with 10 fire engines and 70 firefighters, managing to contain the fire, although its cause remains under investigation with no signs of foul play.

The outage disrupted travel for approximately 2,00,000 passengers expected at Heathrow, with all flights grounded. Long-haul flights from North America and Asia were particularly affected, with some aircraft forced to turn around or divert to other airports in Europe.

The closure also stranded around 4,000 tons of cargo.

Heathrow, which served 83.6 million passengers last year, is a critical hub for international travel. While London has other airports, such as Gatwick, they are much smaller and cannot fully compensate for the loss of operations at Heathrow.