Ryanair has announced it is launching rescue flights for passengers left stranded after Heathrow airport’s closure on Friday.
This morning, Heathrow announced the airport would be shut for all of Friday after a fire at an electrical substation caused a power outage at the world’s second-busiest airport.
The airport told passengers not to travel “under any circumstances,” and said they expect “significant disruption” over the coming days. The fire at the North Hyde substation in West London has also left almost 5,000 homes without power, National Grid UK has said.
The full scale of the disruption at the airport is becoming apparent though, with data from flight tracking website Flightradar24 showing that at least 1,351 flights to and from Heathrow could be cancelled today, the BBC reports.
A number of airlines have released statements in response to the disruption, and now Ryanair have announced they are putting on rescue flights for stranded passengers.
The eight flights will be travelling between Dublin and Stansted airport on Friday and Saturday.
In a statement to the London Economic, the airline said: “Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (21 Mar) added up to 8 rescue flights between Dublin and London Stansted, 4 on Friday and 4 on Saturday to rescue passengers affected by today’s Heathrow closure.
“Ryanair will operate 4 extra flights between Dublin and Stansted on Friday afternoon as well as 4 extra flights on Sat morning. These flights can be booked on Ryanair.com from 09:30AM this morning.”