A report by Jacobs, a major consultancy, highlighted in November 2014 how electricity outages could completely shut Europe's busiest airport.
A decade ago, Heathrow chiefs and ministers were warned about the airport's "key weakness" – its power supply – and the potential for outages to cripple operations. This warning, highlighted in a 2014 report, proved prescient after a substation fire caused significant disruption, grounding flights and affecting hundreds of thousands of passengers. An internal review and government investigation have been launched to examine Heathrow's crisis management and the airport's reliance on limited, aging electricity infrastructure.
