Air India flight returns to Mumbai as power outage forces London Heathrow Airport to shut operations

The national carrier also said that its flights to London Gatwick remain unaffected. Representational pic

Air India on Friday said its operations to and from the London Heathrow Airport have been disrupted, with one flight returning to Mumbai, another diverting to Frankfurt and other flights remaining cancelled owing to temporary suspension of operations at the airport, news agency PTI reported.

Following a significant power outage, operations at the London Heathrow (LHR) have been suspended till 11.59 pm (local time) on Friday.

Apart from Air India, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic also have daily direct flights between various Indian cities and LHR, one of the busiest airports in the world.

In a statement, Air India (AI) said, "London Heathrow-bound AI129 from Mumbai is returning to Mumbai; AI161 from Delhi is diverting to Frankfurt. All our remaining flights to and from London Heathrow, including AI111 of this morning, have been cancelled for 21 March."

PTI reported that the national carrier also said that its flights to London Gatwick remain unaffected.

According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, Air India had scheduled six flights to Heathrow Airport on Friday, with a total of 1,843 seats.

British Airways has eight flights per day between India and LHR, including three from Mumbai and two from Delhi, PTI reported. Virgin Atlantic operates five flights every day to LHR from Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

Providing a global perspective, Cirium on Friday said that up to 1.45 lakh passengers could be impacted due to the outage.

"This is an estimate based on the daily total scheduled seats and flights, which will not be full, and noting the various departure times around the world that could arrive at LHR on Friday. On the LHR departures front, upwards of 145,000 total seats are scheduled to fly on March 21.

"There are 669 flights scheduled to depart on March 21, 2025," it said.

Meanwhile, a British Airways spokesperson, in a statement, said that customers due to travel from Heathrow on Friday are advised not to travel to the airport until further notice.

"This 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," the spokesperson said.

A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson said the temporary airport closure has had a significant impact on its flying programme.

"We're incredibly sorry for the disruption this will cause and are working with our teams to ensure customers can complete their journeys as quickly as possible," the spokesperson said in a statement.

(With PTI inputs)