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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 a temporary suspension of operations at the airport.
Virgin Atlantic and British Airways, the two other carriers besides Air India, that have direct connectivity between India and London Heathrow (LHR) also cancelled their flights on Friday.
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) have been suspended till 2359 hours (local time) on March 21.
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.
An official said at least one flight each of Air India, Virgin Atlantic and British Airways from Delhi to LHR were cancelled on Friday.
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 1,45,000 total seats are scheduled to fly on March 21.
"There are 669 flights scheduled to depart on March 21, 2025," it said.
Global Airlines' grouping IATA Director General Willie Walsh said this is yet another case of Heathrow letting down both travellers and airlines and that begs some serious questions.
In a series of posts on X, he wondered how is that critical infrastructure - of national and global importance - is totally dependent on a single power source without an alternative.
"If that is the case - as it seems - then it is a clear planning failure by the airport."
"And, from that arises the question of who bears the costs of taking care of disrupted travelers. We must find a fairer allocation of passenger care costs than airlines alone picking up the tab when infrastructure fails."
"Until that happens, Heathrow has very little incentive to improve," he said.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) represents around 340 airlines that account for over 80 per cent of the global air passenger traffic.
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.
Cirium said the impact of this incident can cascade over several days, as aircraft, crew, and passengers are out of place, with limited spare aircraft and seats available to recover passengers.