London Heathrow Closed by Fire in Major Disruption

London’s Heathrow airport suffered its worst disruption in at least two decades, after a nearby fire cut power to the hub and brought travel to a standstill for hundreds of thousands of passengers.

The airport — the busiest in Europe and fourth most active in the world — will be closed all day Friday and service interruptions are likely to continue for days, authorities said, as workers try to connect backup electrical supplies.

“Passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances,” Heathrow said in a statement. The airport said it can’t say when power will be reliably restored.

The closure will force more than 1,300 flights to be canceled or rerouted on Friday alone. Heathrow, home to British Airways, is a major hub for transatlantic travel, as well as connections to the Middle East and Asia. While some nearby airports such as London Gatwick have accepted diverted flights, others are being sent as far as Frankfurt.

BA, the flagship carrier of JAAG SA, said in a statement that the outage 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.”

About 677 flights will be affected at British Airways alone, according to ch-Aviation, a data-collecting service for the industry. That’s followed by 62 flights for Virgin Atlantic Ltd, and 42 flights for Lufthansa AG, according to the data. American Airlines has 40 flights cancelled.

Heathrow, which is also home to Virgin Atlantic, handles some 1,400 flights and 200,000 passengers every day, and about 40 aircraft take off every hour at peak times on average.