HOLIDAYMAKERS have slammed Heathrow Airport hotels as they hike prices by 500% after the blaze cancelled all flights.
Passengers are outraged after discovering the cost of their stay has soared since the inferno erupted at an electrical station in Hayes, West London, at around 11pm last night.
Holidaymakers have flocked to nearby hotels amid the travel chaos[/caption]
The Hilton London Heathrow at Terminal 5 is displaying stays for £429 but only £102 next week[/caption]
The Holiday Inn on Bath Road is charging £569 – but only £89 next week[/caption]
Passengers stuck at Heathrow have blasted hotels for hiking prices[/caption]
Heathrow closed after fire at electrical sub station, in Hayes, caused a major power outage[/caption]
The fire triggered a major power outage and has seen more than 2,000 flights from Europe’s busiest airports cancelled, and 145,000 travellers affected.
Holidaymaker Louis was supposed to be flying home to Dublin tomorrow.
But the video producer accused hotels of “absolutely absurd” price increases following the closure.
He said the room he had booked initially set him back £90, but the same room was reportedly advertised on Booking.com for £280.
“They’ve actually doubled, if not, in some cases, tripled the prices of the rooms based on what’s going on, which is absolutely absurd,” Louis said.
“They’re profiting off of people’s misfortunes in this. I don’t know how that’s allowed… It’s frustrating, but it’s just beyond control.”
Meanwhile another passenger, Ellis McDonald, claimed her family of five have been forced to fork out an eye-watering £1,100 to sleep at Staybridge Suites.
They are hunkering down after plans to jet to Orlando were dashed.
Ellis told Sky: “This is such a terrible experience which is being made worse than it needs to be with poor communication and hotels completely taking advantage of an unfortunate event.”
Fellow holidaymaker, Robert, said he managed to book a hotel room for £124 before carnage ensued.
He claimed he was then quoted £500 for tomorrow night.
The Hilton London Heathrow at Terminal 5 is displaying stays for £429, with the Holiday Inn on Bath Road charging £569.
However, the prices for next Friday at Hilton London Heathrow Terminal 5 are £102 and the Holiday Inn on Bath Road is just £89.
It comes as terror cops are leading a probe into a blaze which sparked carnage at Heathrow – with Downing Street saying the airport could be shut for days.
Crowds of passengers waiting at Gatwick Airport today as flights are redirected[/caption]
Weary passengers waited for updates at Heathrow early this morning[/caption]
White smoke continues to rise from the electrical station[/caption]
It is understood officers from the Met Police SO15 counter-terrorism command attended the scene.
They are being kept updated with details of the sub-station blaze as part of routine enquiries.
There is no suggestion of any terrorist or foreign state involvement in the fire at this stage.
It comes as fears have been expressed that Putin may be behind the blaze as experts warn it “bears all hallmarks” of a Russian sabotage plot.
This comes as…
- Follow our live blog for latest updates
- Terror cops are probing the blaze
- More than 2,000 flights impacted – with more than 145,000 passengers affected
- 67,000 homes were cut off from power – now reduced to 5,000
- 29 people evacuated and another 150 people from a 200-metre precautionary cordon around the fire site
- No trains running to or from Heathrow today
- 10 fire engines and around 70 firefighters still at the scene this morning
- Every flight CANCELLED from Heathrow Airport after fire sparked carnage – what it means for you.
- Heathrow Airport closed: what are your rights and can you claim compensation?
- The Sun’s Head of Travel, Lisa Minot, shares her expert analysis.
- 10 per cent of the fire is still burning
- Major motorway linking Heathrow CLOSED
- Gatwick, Stansted and Luton flights today – check your journey
- Find out when Heathrow airport will re-open
- Fears PUTIN may be behind Heathrow fire as chorus of experts warn blaze ‘bears all hallmarks’ of a Russian sabotage plot
The fire follows a chilling wave of Russian intelligence-linked fires, bomb plots, and even assassination attempts across Europe – and has delighted Russian trolls.
Mad Vlad’s crony Dmitry Medvedev penned a remark on X amid the Heathrow shut down.
“I’m looking forward to Russia being blamed for the Heathrow fire,” he wrote.
“What are you waiting for, Starmer?”
Meanwhile, in the US, news anchors have been ridiculing Britain and the chaos unfolding.
Presenting Fox News this morning, host Ainsley Earhardt said: “What a mess, Friday and Spring Break.”
To which reporter Greg Palkot, on the ground at Heathrow, replied: “You got it right, what a mess is correct.”
CNN presenter Isabel Rosales also reacted and told viewers: “What a major headache.
“So many questions that need to be answered and reflection that needs to happen on how a single substation could take out the back-up power source of such a critical airport.“
In their latest update UK’s National Grid said Heathrow is now reconnected to substation on interim basis.
However, it will still take some time before the airport is back in action.
Downing Street would not say whether it is confident Heathrow Airport will be fully reopened by Saturday.
Asked whether this would be the case, a No 10 spokesman said: “Well, it’s clearly a fast-moving situation.”
He added: “The fire is still burning and I’m aware that the airport has announced a complete closure until midnight tonight as a result of the situation.
“It will be for emergency services and Heathrow to update on timescales for when this situation will be resolved. We do expect there will be significant direct disruption in the hours and days ahead.”
There was a “cross-government call” on Friday morning to deal with the immediate aftermath of the fire, the spokesman said.
He added: “The Department for Transport is working closely with Heathrow Airport, Nats (National Air Traffic Services) and all key operators to understand the situation and ensure a quick resolution so that the airport can reopen and flights resume as quickly as possible, and clearly we will do everything we can to support those affected and get things moving again.”
The fire at a power station on Nestles Avenue, and subsequent power outage, has since closed the busiest airport in Europe until 11.59pm today – causing travel chaos and leaving thousands stranded.
DREAM HOLIDAYS SQUASHED
Ladelle Hash, 47, organiser of a group of 31 New Mexico tourists, is trying to get home after a week in Scotland.
She said: ”We got on our coach at around 4 o’clock this morning to get to the airport three hours early. As we were gathering our bags, we found out that Heathrow was closing.
”We’ve just been waiting – I’m trying to reroute us.
”One of my travellers that was going to another state has been booked, but she’s going through Rome now.
“She’s getting over to Rome, before going to Philadelphia and then to Chicago – she’s going to be all over the place.
”I’m just hoping that they’ll get us flown to another big city by this afternoon – hopefully Dublin or Paris, so we can still get home, just a bit later than we’d hoped.”
Fellow passengers Andrew Sri, his wife and their three young children, had travelled to England from Dallas, Texas, to visit Andrew’s sister Andrea, who lives in Greenwich, east London.
They were meant to catch their return flight to Dallas on Friday but were told on arrival at Heathrow that the airport was closed.
“I just wish they had updated us accordingly,” Mr Sri said.
“At the moment, the schedule on our flight says it’s delayed, so that’s why we drove out. So now we’ve got here and they told us, actually the airport’s been shut down, so it’s a little bit disappointing.”
His three children, aged eight to one year old, were asleep in the car.
“Obviously something happened and they’re taking precautions, and we understand that. We just wish we were given a heads-up warning not to come here.”
Meanwhile a British Airways customer said she risks losing nearly £1,500.
Maria La Chica, 47, from Basingstoke, was due to fly from Heathrow to Washington DC at midday on Friday and was excited about watching her favourite ice hockey team, the Washington Capitals.
The project manager told the PA news agency she felt “quite annoyed” as her flight with BA is currently delayed.
“I had really been looking forward to this (trip). It was like my treat to myself having had some personal events, so it’s just very annoying,” she said.
“I’ve had this (trip) booked for a little bit. The most important player of the (ice hockey) team is about to beat a record, so I wanted to see them before this record was done, but it’s not going to happen now.”
Ms La Chica considered booking alternative flights from other airports but her available options were “incredibly expensive” having already spent £600 on her flight, a further £600 on accommodation and around £250 on the ice hockey game tickets.
“My thinking is that (BA) are probably waiting until the very last minute to tell people that their flights are cancelled, but that is very frustrating… because they’re not actually cancelling my flight, it’s still saying delayed so I do not know if it’s going today or not.”
Hadley Davydaitis, 43, a resource planning manager, and girlfriend Katrina Harris, 40, a therapist were set to fly to the Central American paradise with Air Canada for 14 days.
He said: “It’s an absolute nightmare. We’re stressed and desperately waiting to try and figure out what’s going on.
“In theory, we should be on the next flight. But there’s going to be a huge backlog, is that going to be tomorrow, the next day?”
He said his girlfriend woke up early due to the excitement of the trip.
“I looked at my phone for a little bit and the first thing I saw was the headline about Heathrow.”
It was a dream destination for the couple.
“I’ve wanted to go since I was 18 – the wildlife, the biodiversity, everything else. Katrina, similarly, has been waiting to go for years now and now we don’t know what’s going to happen.”
London Fire Brigade’s deputy commissioner Jonathan Smith said in their latest update at 11am: “As of the most recent update that I have received, approximately 10% remains alight.”
The substation fire involved 25,000 litres of cooling oil fully alight, Mr Smith revealed.
He confirmed 67,000 households were left without power after the fire, and 5,000 are still cut off.
Mr Smith added how there is still no power in Heathrow’s terminals two or four.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has now spoken to Thomas Woldbye, the Heathrow chief executive.
Ms Alexander said: “This morning, I spoke with Heathrow Airport’s chief executive to hear the latest on the unprecedented power outage and I am reassured they’re working tirelessly to reopen the airport as soon as possible.
“I would like to thank everyone involved in responding to this situation – particularly the emergency workers who have worked to contain the fire and keep everyone safe.
“I appreciate how disruptive this situation is for passengers, but until they hear otherwise, the advice remains to avoid travelling to Heathrow.”
The shut-down has had a huge knock-on affect across the country as flights bound for Heathrow were diverted to other airports.
Crowds and queues were seen at Gatwick, Manchester and Edinburgh airports and even in Paris as long-haul flights were forced to land there.
And the impact is set to be felt for days to come.
In total, the airport closure is expected to impact more than 2,000 flights, according to Cirium.
Early this morning, 120 planes already circulating Heathrow airspace are being diverted or turned around.
Passengers from across the globe, from San Francisco to Australia have been impacted, with around 2,000 flights to and from Heathrow set to be affected.
The airport was set to welcome 665 departures today, which is around 145,094 seats.
A further 669 flights were also due to arrive today, equating to 145,836 seats.
In total the airport was expected to see over 2,000 scheduled flights today, flying up 291,000 passengers.
Rail services to and from Heathrow – which more than 200,000 people travel through every day – have also been cancelled today, National Rail said.
A spokesman for Heathrow has said: “Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage across the airport due to a large fire at a nearby electrical substation.
“Whilst fire crews are responding to the incident, we do not have clarity on when power may be reliably restored.
“To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, we have no choice but to close Heathrow until 11.59pm on March 21.
“We expect significant disruption over the coming days and passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens.”
A statement adds: “Passengers are advised not to travel to the airport and should contact their airline for further information. We apologise for the inconvenience.”
YOUR COMPENSATION RIGHTS
By James Flanders, Chief Consumer Reporter
UNDER UK law, airlines are required to pay compensation to passengers when their flights are delayed or cancelled.
However, you only have the right to compensation in some circumstances.
There are two key factors:
– How severely you have been inconvenienced – for instance, if you have only been delayed slightly, you may not be entitled to compensation.
– The cause of the delay – if the delay was caused by an “extraordinary circumstance” you will not be entitled to compensation.
Unfortunately for passengers due to travel today, airlines will largely view today’s circumstances as out of their control.
This would qualify as an “extraordinary circumstance” and justify their move not to pay out to affected customers.
However, if your cancelled flight falls under UK law, your airline is obligated to either provide you with a refund should you no longer wish to travel, or arrange for you to be rebooked on an alternative flight.
If you still want to travel, your airline must find you an alternative flight.
It’s up to you whether to fly as soon as possible after the cancelled flight, or at a later date that suits you.
Although most airlines will book you onto another of their flights to the same destination, if an alternative airline is flying there significantly sooner or other suitable modes of transport are available then you may have the right to be booked onto that alternative transport instead.
If you do take an alternative flight, you’re entitled to care and assistance while you wait, which usually means refreshments, access to communications.
You may also be entitled to accommodation and the necessary transfers if the flight is delayed until the next day or later and you’re stranded.
If your airline advises you to make alternative travel arrangements and claim back the cost later, you should incur reasonable costs and keep all receipts.
You should discuss this with your airline.
FlightRadar shows the sheer volume of aircraft arriving to the UK[/caption]
Frustrated passengers waiting at Stansted Airport in Essex, which is extra busy this morning as they take on arrivals originally due for Heathrow[/caption]
