Virgin Atlantic has said the recent day-long shutdown of Heathrow cost it “tens of millions” after it was forced to cancel 75 flights and operate six diversions.
The airport’s closure on March 21 following a fire at a nearby electricity substation led to more than 1,300 flights being cancelled in total.
During a financial results call after Virgin Atlantic confirmed its return to profit after the pandemic, chief financial officer Oli Byers declined to confirm the exact cost incurred by the airline as a result of the shutdown but said the figure was in the “tens of millions”.
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Pointing to the two investigations under way, one of which is an internal review at Heathrow while the other is being led by the National Energy System Operator (NESO), he called for “swift answers”.
He said: “Our position is they really need to lead to swift answers about what happened in the run-up to the shutdown and then in the restart process.
“It’s obviously quite significant in terms of understanding Heathrow’s resilience and we think it’s going to ask some pretty serious questions about that temporary closure and why it caused so much disruption.
“We’re looking to both of those investigations to really understand the impact and give swift answers.”