Britain's Heathrow Airport, a major travel hub, said it would be closed all of Friday after a huge fire at a nearby electrical substation wiped out power, disrupting flight schedules around the world.
Here are some facts about one of the world's busiest international airport:
HISTORY:
— The airport is named after the village or hamlet of Heathrow, which used to be roughly where Terminal 3 now stands.
— It began as a tented village in 1946 serving 18 destinations with a handful of airlines making 9,000 flights a year.
— The first departure was on New Year's Day 1946 to Buenos Aires via Lisbon, the first refuelling stop on a long-haul flight to open up Britain's first air link with South America.
— Heathrow's first terminal for short haul flights opened in 1955. Originally known as the Europa Building, it is now known as Terminal 2.
— Terminal 1 was formally opened in 1969 by Queen Elizabeth and was closed in June 2015. Terminal 3 opened in 1961 and Terminal 4 in 1986.
— Terminal 5 opened in 2008. The public inquiry into its construction was the longest in British planning history, lasting nearly four years.
KEY NUMBERS:
— Heathrow serves over 230 destinations in nearly 90 countries.
— 90 airlines have made Heathrow their base, including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Lufthansa.
— There are two main runways. The northern one is 3,902 metres long. The southern is 3,658m.
— The airport will submit its proposal for a third runway this summer, weeks after the British government granted its support to the project citing its potential to boost trade and economic growth.
— According to the group's traffic summary, 5.7-million passengers travelled through Heathrow in February 2025, making it the busiest February on record. Passenger numbers amounted to 84.1-million from March 2024 to February 2025.
— Heathrow is operating at 99% capacity and risks being overtaken by European rivals. Its two runways compare with four each at Paris' Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt Airport, and six at Amsterdam's Schiphol.
— There are about 475,000 total aircraft movements annually.
— The most popular destination is New York.
— More than 90,000 people work at the airport, the UK's largest single-site employer.
Reuters
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.