'Reputations will be made and lost': Heathrow closure unpacked by crisis experts

London’s Heathrow Airport was forced to close on Friday (21 March) after a fire broke out overnight at an electrical substation supplying the airport, causing a major power outage.

The airport, which is Europe’s busiest, announced in the early hours via its social media channels that it would be closed for the remainder of the day, advising passengers not to travel and to contact their airline for further assistance.

More than 1,350 inbound and outbound flights were thought to be directly affected by Heathrow’s emergency closure, according to live flight-tracker Flightradar24 – not taking into account the disruption to other flights and wider journeys due to aircraft being out of position.

“Although a total Heathrow shutdown will have been scenario-planned, modelled, rehearsed and simulated, today is a vivid reminder of the multi-party, global interconnectedness of critical national infrastructure,” said Rod Cartwright, principal at Rod Cartwright Consulting and special advisor to the CIPR’s Crisis Communications Network on Friday.

“The whole system knock-on effects at Heathrow are mind-boggling – from security systems and car parking to cargo and baggage handling,” he points out.

Beyond the airport itself, Cartwright made the point that airlines, cargo carriers and air traffic control now face the “gargantuan” task of re-routing passengers and rescheduling flights – while the insurance and compensation picture looks “labyrinthine”.

“Effective communication will, naturally, be absolutely critical,” said Cartwright. “However, the challenge for the complex, interlocking network of organisations involved in managing the very real human implications goes way beyond communication alone.”

Filling the information gap

In terms of the comms team’s involvement, things went relatively smoothly in the early stages, said Nick Price-Thompson, director of communications and public affairs at Kensington and Chelsea Council on Friday.

“On the ground, it looks like the response is well organised, with ongoing co-ordination between public sector organisations, utilities, and emergency services,” says the comms boss, who joined Kensington and Chelsea to support in the immediate aftermath of the Grenfell tragedy.

“But the incident is both local and global,” he adds. “Airport services and airlines, in particular, are going to have to move very quickly to tackle knock-on impacts – reputations will be made and lost with customers over the next 24 to 48 hours.

“It underlines the need for crisis training and planning to feel real and be real, to test PR teams in middle-of-the-night conditions when co-ordination can be much more difficult.”

One PR pro who can sympathise with this is Lorna O’Neill, ex-comms lead at Thomas Cook Airlines, who now runs crisis consultancy Surge Communications.

“Having been at the coalface of an airline press office, my first thought was what a tough weekend the Heathrow press team have ahead of them,” she told PRWeek on Friday.

“They’re likely to be facing a void of information, unsure on what exactly has happened, when it will be resolved and the wider knock-on impacts – not just here but across the world. There is such a domino effect in aviation, with very little slack in the system when things go wrong.

“The press office will want to fill that gap, but they can only confirm what they do and don’t know while preparing for every possible scenario to be two steps ahead. Meanwhile, they will be managing a barrage of calls from media, customers and other stakeholders wanting answers. That needs structure, resource and organisation to stay on top.”

O’Neill said Heathrow’s choice to “come out early with a clear statement” was “the right approach”.

She continued: “Now, I would suggest they continue to ‘feed the beast’ with updates over the coming hours as much as they possibly can to prevent misinformation from filling the gaps and fuelling speculation.”

‘Underwhelming’ response

Arguing that the airport has already dropped the ball somewhat on this front, however, is Oliver Wheeler, chief executive of strategic comms firm Threesixty, which counts low-cost carrier Wizz Air among its clients. He said: “Heathrow’s communications response to today’s incident has been underwhelming.”

Wheeler argued the airport, having posted only one tweet as of midday Friday, had “failed to take a proactive role in managing the narrative”.

“Instead, updates are coming from airlines and other external sources, leaving passengers in the dark and creating a vacuum of information.”

He stated: “In a situation of this scale, clear, consistent and authoritative messaging is essential. Heathrow should be issuing regular updates, even if just to acknowledge the ongoing disruption and reassure customers that they are working on solutions.

“By staying silent, they have effectively lost control of their own story, allowing speculation and frustration to grow.”

Wheeler also shared his view that Heathrow is lacking in an urgent news section on its website, telling PRWeek: “It’s always easier for third parties to comment, but the airport itself must be the leading voice in a crisis like this.

“Their current approach makes them look reactive rather than responsible. Stronger comms will reassure passengers, help limit disruption and better protect Heathrow’s reputation.”

Aftermath

Also keeping an eye on the situation was James Chapman, director of Soho Communications, who says: “A structured and transparent approach, and genuine expressions of empathy for the inconvenience and stress caused to passengers, are crucial.”

He explained: “Once the crisis is over, some sort of review of how the situation was handled is going to be essential, as will communicating improvements that will be made to prevent similar incidents in the future.

“The airport and government ministers are already facing questions about a planning failure if Heathrow turns out to have been dependent on a single power source without an alternative, and I expect this issue to come to the fore in the coming hours and days.”

In agreement was Kim Polley, managing partner for the UK & Ireland at Instinctif Partners, who said on Friday: “Today’s shutdown at Heathrow Airport wasn’t just a logistical failure. It was a reputational one – for the airport, the airlines, and for the broader travel ecosystem that depends on public trust.

“Media sentiment has ranged from analytical to outraged,” she observes. “Some outlets probed the deeper question of how such a critical infrastructure hub could be so vulnerable. Others zeroed in on passengers left in the dark – quite literally – with little communication, support or recourse.

“All of it adds up to one thing: reputational damage that will take more than an apology to fix.”

As part of its solution, Polley recommends that Heathrow “put faces to the fix”, explaining: “Frontline engineers, customer service teams and operations leads all play a role in recovery. Make them visible. Show the effort behind the scenes to rebuild confidence.”

In the long term, she believes that “Heathrow, and the broader UK transport network, has an opportunity to lead the conversation on infrastructure resilience”.

“Don’t hide from the scrutiny,” advises Polley. “Use it to champion smarter systems, stronger safeguards and better public engagement.”