The Transport Committee is set to examine the Heathrow Airport power outage that led to significant disruption on 21 March. The session, scheduled for Wednesday 2 April at 09:15 in Committee Room 6 of the Palace of Westminster, will be streamed live on ParliamentTV.
The nearly 24-hour shutdown resulted in around 1,400 flights being cancelled or diverted, affecting over 200,000 passengers. The Committee will assess whether Heathrow’s response was adequate and if alternative approaches could have minimised disruption.
On Wednesday morning, MPs will question Heathrow Airport CEO Thomas Woldbye on operational decisions and why the airport appeared to have a single point of failure.
The Committee will also explore why alternative power sources were not utilised sooner. National Grid has stated that two other substations could have powered the airport, yet only diesel backup generators were used to support critical functions.
Representing the National Grid at the session will be Alice Delahunty, President of UK Electricity Transmission. Also giving evidence is Eliane Algaard, Operations Director at Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN), which was responsible for restoring power after the fire at the National Grid transmission substation.
The Committee will question whether Heathrow Airport Ltd sufficiently assessed the risk of such a failure and if investment in additional resilience measures was considered unnecessary due to the perceived rarity of such an event.
MPs will also investigate how Heathrow coordinated with other UK and European airports to manage diverted flights and how the company worked with affected airlines. Compensation for disrupted passengers and stakeholders will also be discussed.
The full line-up of witnesses includes:
- Thomas Woldbye, Chief Executive, Heathrow Airport
- Alice Delahunty, President – UK Electricity Transmission, National Grid
- Eliane Algaard, Operations Director, Scottish & Southern Electricity Networks
- Nigel Wicking, Chief Executive, Heathrow Airline Operators Committee Limited
The Transport Committee is a cross-party group of backbench MPs appointed by the House of Commons. It is responsible for scrutinising the Department for Transport’s policies, holding it accountable, and examining organisations such as Network Rail, National Highways, the Civil Aviation Authority, and companies providing public transport services.
