London :

Britain’s Heathrow Airport, a major global travel hub, said it would be closed for all of Friday after a huge fire at a nearby electrical substation wiped out its power, disrupting flight schedules around the world.

Here are some facts about the world’s fourth-busiest international airport:

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There are two main runways. The northern one is 3,902 metres long. The southern is 3,658 metres.

The airport will submit its proposal for a third runway this summer, weeks after the British government granted its support to the project citing its potential to boost trade and economic growth.

Heathrow is operating at 99% capacity and risks being overtaken by European rivals. Its two runways compare with four each at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt Airport, and six at Amsterdam’s Schiphol.

Heathrow serves more than 230 destinations in nearly 90 countries.

Ninety airlines have made Heathrow their base, including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Lufthansa.

According to the group’s traffic summary, 5.7 million passengers travelled through Heathrow in February 2025, making it the busiest February on record. Passenger numbers amounted to 84.1 million from March 2024 to February 2025.

The airport is owned and operated by Heathrow Airport Holdings, whose owners include Ardian, Qatar Investment Fund and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

There are around 475,000 total aircraft movements through Heathrow annually.

The most popular destination out of Heathrow is New York.

More than 90,000 people work at the airport, the UK’s largest single-site employer.

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