London Heathrow Airport: Air India says services disrupted; flights diverted, cancelled

NEW DELHI: Air India on Friday said its operations to and from the London Heathrow airport have been disrupted, with one flight returning to Mumbai, another diverting to Frankfurt and other flights remaining cancelled due to temporary suspension of operations at the airport.

Following a significant power outage, operations at the London Heathrow (LHR) have been suspended till 2359 hours (local time) on March 21.

Apart from Air India, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have daily direct flights between various Indian cities and LHR, one of the busiest airports in the world.

In a statement, Air India (AI) said its operations to and from LHR have been disrupted.

"London Heathrow-bound AI129 from Mumbai is returning to Mumbai; AI161 from Delhi is diverting to Frankfurt. All our remaining flights to and from London Heathrow, including AI111 of this morning, have been cancelled for 21 March," the airline said.

Air India also said that its flights to London Gatwick remain unaffected.

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

British Airways has 8 flights per day between India and LHR, including 3 from Mumbai and 2 from Delhi. Virgin Atlantic has 5 daily flights to LHR from Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

Providing a global perspective, Cirium on Friday said roughly upwards of 1,45,000 passengers could be impacted.

"This is an estimate based on the daily total scheduled seats and flights, which will not be full, and noting the various departure times around the world that could arrive at LHR on Friday. On the LHR departures front, upwards of 145,000 total seats are scheduled to fly on March 21.

"There are 669 flights scheduled to depart on March 21, 2025," it said.

In a statement, a British Airways spokesperson said customers due to travel from Heathrow on Friday are advised not to travel to the airport until further notice.

"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," the spokesperson said.

A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson said the temporary airport closure has had a significant impact on its flying programme.

"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," the spokesperson said in a statement.