Heathrow Airport roads reopen after mains burst

All roads to Heathrow Airport have reopened after earlier disruption caused by flooding from a burst water main on a ring road.

The flooding along Inner Ring Road West prevented access to the central terminal area (CTA), which includes Terminals 2 and 3, a number of other buildings and the road network.

Heathrow Airport has confirmed the airport is now operating as normal and has apologised for the inconvenience after the road closures were made just before 06:00 BST.

Passengers are still being advised to use public transport where possible due to heavy congestion on the roads.

The travel disruption left some passengers struggling to get to their planes on time.

George Smyrniadis, 79, missed his flight to Frankfurt where he was headed for a school reunion on Saturday afternoon.

Speaking to BBC’s Your Voice, he said: “I was upset. It’s the first reunion I’ve missed since 1987.

“I was so downhearted i just wanted to get home.

“The whole airport seemed completely chaotic, but I got the impression the airlines just carried on as though nothing was wrong – and if you missed your flight you just missed it.”

Smyrniadis said his trip from Portsmouth went well until he left the M4, at which point he was sat in traffic for 90 minutes travelling a distance which usually takes him about 10 minutes.

“By the time I got to security it was too late – it was already 09:30BST so they wouldn’t let me go through any further.”

It is understood that there was no flooding within either terminal, and flights have not been disrupted.

The affected pipes are owned by Heathrow Airport which has been in charge of the repairs.

The disruption hit passengers amid the school summer holidays.

Heathrow said 19 July was its busiest day of the year so far as many schools broke up for summer, with 267,000 passengers passing through.

An airport spokesperson said: “Following earlier road flooding impacting access to Terminals 2 and 3, all roads have now reopened and the airport continues to operate as normal.

“We apologise for any inconvenience caused and we thank passengers for following the advisories we had put in place while our teams worked to resolve the situation as quickly as possible.”

The airport was recently affected by disruption to railway services, after a water leak prompted the closure of a tunnel.

Additional reporting by PA Media.

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