Heathrow restarts flights after global flight turmoil

Heathrow said its teams had worked tirelessly to reopen the world's fifth-busiest airport after it was forced to close entirely after a huge fire engulfed a substation near the airport on Thursday night, with travellers told to stay away.

The airport had been due to handle 1,351 flights on Friday, flying up to 291,000 passengers, but planes were diverted to other airports in Britain and across Europe, while many long-haul flights returned to their point of departure.

Heathrow said there would be a limited number of flights on Friday, mostly focused on relocating aircraft and bringing planes into London.

"Tomorrow morning, we expect to be back in full operation, to 100% operation as a normal day," said Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye. "What I'd like to do is to apologise to the many people who have had their travel affected ...we are very sorry about all the inconvenience."