A body representing more than 90 airlines using Heathrow Airport has threatened to take legal action if a settlement over the costs they incurred from Friday’s day-long closure is not reached.
The chief executive of Heathrow Airline Operators’ Committee Nigel Wicking told Sky News he hoped the matter could be “amicably settled at some point in time” but said, “if we don’t get good enough recourse and repayment in terms of the costs, then yes, there might be a case for legal action”.
“I would hope not. But in some of these situations that’s the only course once you’ve gone through everything else”, he added.
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Heathrow, Europe’s largest airport, was closed from the early hours of Friday morning after a fire at a major electricity substation hit electricity supplies.
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No planes were allowed to take off or land, causing flight diversions. About 1,300 flights were impacted with around 250,000 passengers affected.
Some flights resumed on Friday evening but airlines faced difficulties and passengers were disrupted due to airline crew being in different parts of the world.
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Mr Wicking also called for an independent investigation of what happened and why recovery took so long.
“Airlines have a regulatory duty to take care of their passengers,” he said. “But in this particular case, we do feel that it was another party that caused the situation.”
‘Appalling’ communication
The head of the airline group representing companies such as British Airways and Virgin Atlantic was also critical of Heathrow’s communication.
He said it was “appalling” airlines had to wait until midnight on Friday to confirm that terminal two would open on Saturday.
The situation was “not justifiable given the amount of money that has been spent on Heathrow over the years and the fact that it is the most expensive airport in the world”.
The hit to airlines
Airlines and suppliers alone could face costs of “at least” £20m for the day of halted operations, said travel expert Paul Charles, a former Virgin Atlantic communications director and chief executive of travel consultancy The PC Agency.
The figure includes an estimate of expenses for passengers, crew accommodation, additional transport, fuel and other costs for the aircraft themselves.
Analysts at investment bank Jefferies said compensation for delays could knock 1% to 3% off profits at BA and Aer Lingus parent company IAG.
Heathrow has been contacted for comment.
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Its CEO Thomas Woldbye said he was “proud” of how the airport responded to the outage.
In a post on LinkedIn on Monday Mr Woldbye added, “, was I proud of the situation we found ourselves in? Of course not.”
“But I am incredibly grateful for, and proud of, what was achieved to get us out of the situation in such a short amount of time by teams of people we all rely on across the entire airport eco-system, but who rarely get the credit they deserve.”
