Birmingham Airport delays: Will flights be delayed due to Heathrow Airport closure on Friday?

Flights are being diverted from Heathrow Airport following a fire at a nearby electrical substation with one being sent to Birmingham.

More than 1,300 flights to and from Heathrow Airport will be disrupted on Friday due to the closure of the airport following a fire at a nearby electrical substation.

Thousands of homes have been left without power and more than 100 people were evacuated after a transformer within the North Hyde electrical substation caught fire in west London.

Online flight tracking service FlightRadar24 said the closure would affect more than 1,350 flights to and from Heathrow. This includes 679 scheduled to land and 678 due to take off from the airport.

So far one flight has been diverted to Birmingham Airport, but the London incident is not expected to cause delays to scheduled Birmingham Airport flights.

A Birmingham Airport spokesperson said: “There will be no delays to Birmingham Airport’s own customers, due to any diverted Heathrow aircraft into BHX. Airports regularly take diverts as part of normal operations, and flights inbound to London Heathrow will use multiple airports around the UK, and Ireland, or alternatively may return to their departure airport.

“We will assist with landing any diverted aircraft during the Heathrow closure today and work with those LHR airlines to repatriate their customers upon arrival into Birmingham."

FlightRadar24 said that 120 flights to the airport were in the air when the closure was announced.

Heathrow is the UK’s largest airport, with more than 83.9 million passengers travelling through its terminals in 2024.