With the fires at Heathrow causing some minor disruption at Manchester, here is a breakdown of what happened and how it might impact the next few days of flying from the airport.
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00:00Hello and welcome to Manchester World, my name is Theo Huston-Betts and today we have
00:03a slightly different explainer for you, one that is relevant to the fires near Heathrow
00:07Airport that have caused such significant disruption to travellers across the UK earlier
00:11on this morning.
00:13Heathrow was forced to close its doors for the entirety of Friday 21st of March after
00:17a fire broke out at a nearby electrical substation which caused a significant power outage and
00:22has forced the cancellation of all incoming and outgoing flights from the London Airport
00:26on that day.
00:27The airport hopes to open over the weekend but that will not mark an end to the chaos
00:31and disruption caused by the whole day's worth of cancelled flights.
00:34For people in Manchester, here is what you need to know.
00:37There are basically very few delays or cancellations that will affect you unless you are flying
00:41directly to Heathrow Airport.
00:42While you know how incredibly stressful travelling can be, it's incredibly important that you
00:47don't panic and cause yourself stress when there's no need for it.
00:51What we'd suggest is aim to get to the airport a few hours before your flight to ensure that
00:54you have access to new information as it comes and maybe prepare alternate provisions
00:58in case you might need to spend a night at the airport but that's incredibly unlikely
01:02or certainly no more unlikely than usual.
01:04Five flights that have been bound for Heathrow overnight ended up being diverted to Manchester
01:08due to being airborne when the decision to shut Heathrow was made.
01:11The flights were from Nairobi, Philadelphia, Dubai and two were from New York.
01:14So if you encounter any confused Americans looking to make their way down south, please
01:18be sure to direct them to the appropriate train stations which I'm sure will be running
01:22incredibly smoothly.
01:23There are no more flights expected to be diverted between Heathrow and Manchester today so delays
01:27and cancellations should be few and far between.
01:29There may be some more congestion and confusion around Manchester's train stations but really
01:34the purpose of this video is purely to ensure you that there's no need for stress, all will
01:38be well, you will get to your destination and hopefully on time.
01:42So that's all for now, enjoy your flights and follow Manchester World for more.