At least 16 flights between S’pore and London affected after Heathrow Airport closure

SINGAPORE – At least 16 flights between Singapore and London were cancelled or diverted after Heathrow, the British capital’s main airport, was forced to shut due to a massive power outage.

Britain’s biggest airport said at about 11am, Singapore time, on March 21 that it will

be closed until midnight

(8am on March 22, Singapore time).

Late on March 21, three Heathrow-bound flights from Singapore operated by British Airways and Australia’s Qantas – BA16, QF1 and BA12 – appeared to be going ahead as planned.

Singapore Airlines (SIA) said four Singapore-bound flights from Heathrow on March 21, as well as two on March 22, had been cancelled. 

Two SIA flights that left Singapore for Heathrow on March 20 and 21 were diverted – one to Frankfurt, Germany, and the other to Paris, France – while four scheduled for departure on March 21 and 22 were cancelled.

One of those cancelled, Flight SQ308, which left Singapore at about 9.20am on March 21, turned back to Changi Airport and landed at around 4.25pm.

Passengers on that flight told The Straits Times that about 3½ hours into their journey, the pilot informed them that the crew had been instructed to turn the plane back due to a fire that broke out near Heathrow Airport, which disrupted the airport’s power supply.

This was after the plane had been circling around the Bay of Bengal near Bangladesh for a while, they added.

The passengers said they already heard of Heathrow’s closure from news alerts on their phones, and were speculating about the situation before the pilot made the in-flight announcement.

Some passengers were upset that their travel plans had been disrupted.

Mr Sylvester Fedor, who works in business development, was upset that he had to cancel his plans to visit friends in London and his holiday in Italy thereafter.

The 40-year-old Singaporean said that while SIA offered foreigners a free night’s stay at a hotel, the airline told Singaporeans to go home and wait for a service recovery e-mail within the next 24 hours. Mr Fedor plans to lodge claims through his personal travel insurance plan.

Mrs Leigh Haven and her husband, a couple from Melbourne, Australia, said the SIA crew kept them well informed throughout the disruption, and they were given a taxi ride and hotel vouchers.

She foresees it would be chaos for a few days, but that “if you got to be stranded, Singapore is a good place to be”.

Some passengers secured seats on other flights.

An economic analyst, who gave her name only as Ms V, 27, said her company rebooked her on a flight to London’s Gatwick Airport via Istanbul that would depart from Singapore at night on March 21. Gatwick is London’s secondary international airport.

The Singaporean said she was travelling to London for a work event on March 22, and was thankful that she managed to get a flight out, although she would be a few hours late for her event.

A Briton who gave his name only as Robert, 51, had hoped his SIA flight, which turned back to Singapore, could have been diverted to Gatwick. The border force officer said he was not looking forward to another flight, although he appreciated the vouchers.

Lightfoot Travel, a Singapore-based travel agency, said its customers had not been “too badly affected”, except for a guest whose flight from Heathrow to Singapore was cancelled.

The agency’s operations director Simon Chaffey was on a Heathrow-bound SIA flight that was diverted to Frankfurt. He said passengers were told to make their own travel arrangements and no alternative onward flights were offered.

“Fortunately, with Europe being so well connected by rail, I managed to organise onward travel from Germany to Belgium, before taking the Eurostar (train) to London,” said Mr Chaffey.

SIA said two of its flights were diverted to airports in nearby countries.

SQ322, which departed from Singapore on March 20, was diverted to Frankfurt Airport. SQ306, which departed from Singapore on March 21, was diverted to Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport in France.

An SIA spokesperson told ST on the evening of March 21 that the airline had “closely monitored the situation and diverted the flights to the most appropriate alternative airports that are capable of handling them and supporting our customers”.

“For customers who were diverted to Frankfurt and Paris, we will arrange land transport to London, where required, if that is their destination, or rebook them on alternative flights if they are travelling beyond London,” said the spokesperson.

“Customers on cancelled flights will be offered hotel accommodation and rebooked on the next available flights where necessary. Alternatively, they may opt for a full refund of the unused portion of their ticket if they choose not to travel.”

Qantas told ST that Flight QF1, which departed from Singapore to London on March 20, was diverted to Paris. The airline had arranged for buses to take customers for an estimated nine-hour ride to London.

Flight QF2, which was scheduled to depart from Heathrow for Singapore on March 21, has been delayed till March 22.  

Qantas added that it is closely monitoring the situation and will contact customers directly if their flights are affected.

According to flight tracking website FlightAware, flights BA12 and BA16, which left Singapore on March 20, were diverted to Gatwick Airport.

British Airways said it has had to cancel all short-haul flights due to operate to and from Heathrow on March 21.

“Our teams are currently working hard to review our long-haul schedule, as well as the implications for our schedule for tomorrow (March 22) and beyond,” it added.

In response to ST’s queries, Changi Airport Group said passengers travelling from Singapore to Heathrow are advised to check with their airlines on their flights’ status.

Passengers can check the status of flights departing from and arriving at Changi on the airport’s website.

A passenger, who wanted to be known only as Ms Ashley, said she was slated to return to Singapore on SQ321 on the night of March 21, but she was informed of its cancellation at around 7.30am, London time.

The 26-year-old and her mother have been on holiday in London for a week, and now plan to take a train to Brussels, Belgium, to catch a flight to Singapore instead.

“I’m a bit stressed since I am starting a new job next Monday,” she said.

Heathrow experienced a significant power outage due to a fire at a nearby electrical substation supplying power to the airport.

Fire crews were responding to the incident, but there is no clarity on when power may be reliably restored, a Heathrow spokesperson told news agency Reuters in an e-mail, adding that it expects significant disruption over the coming days.

According to flight tracking website FlightRadar24, at least 120 flights will have to divert because of the airport closure.

Dozens of diversions to other airports were already occurring, with Qantas Airways sending its flight from Perth to Paris and a United Airlines New York flight heading to Shannon, Ireland.

Also, a United Airlines flight from San Francisco was due to land in Washington, instead of London.

Heathrow is the world’s fifth-busiest international airport in 2025, according to aviation data consultancy OAG.