London’s Heathrow Airport resumed full operations on Saturday, a day after a fire knocked out its power supply and shut Europe’s busiest airport, causing global travel chaos.

The travel industry was scrambling to reroute passengers and fix battered airline schedules after the huge fire at an electrical substation serving the airport.

Some flights had resumed on Friday evening, but the shuttering of the world’s fifth-busiest airport for most of the day left tens of thousands searching for scarce hotel rooms and replacement seats while airlines tried to return jets and crew to bases.

Teams were working across the airport to support passengers affected by the outage, a Heathrow spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

“We have hundreds of additional colleagues on hand in our terminals and we have added flights to today’s schedule to facilitate an extra 10,000 passengers travelling through the airport,” the spokesperson said.

The travel industry, facing the prospect of a financial hit costing tens of millions of pounds and a likely fight over who should pay, questioned how such crucial infrastructure could fail without backup.

“It is a clear planning failure by the airport,” said Willie Walsh, head of global airlines body IATA, who, as former head of British Airways, has for years been a fierce critic of the crowded hub.

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 Chief Executive Thomas Woldbye said he expected the airport to be back “in full operation” on Saturday.

Asked who would pay for the disruption, he said there were “procedures in place”, adding “we don’t have liabilities in place for incidents like this”.

Restrictions on overnight flights were temporarily lifted by Britain’s Department of Transport to ease congestion, but British Airways chief executive Sean Doyle said the closure was set to have a “huge impact on all of our customers flying with us over the coming days.”

Virgin Atlantic said it expected to operate “a near full schedule” with limited cancellations on Saturday but that the situation remained dynamic and all flights would be kept under continuous review.

Airlines including JetBlue, American Airlines, Air Canada, Air India, Delta Air Lines, Qantas, United Airlines, British Airways and Virgin were diverted or returned to their origin airports in the wake of the closure, according to data from flight analytics firm Cirium.

Shares in many airlines fell on Friday.

Aviation experts said the last time European airports experienced disruption on such a large scale was the 2010 Icelandic volcanic ash cloud that grounded some 100,000 flights.

They warned that some passengers forced to land in Europe may have to stay in transit lounges if they lack the paperwork to leave the airport.

Prices at hotels around Heathrow jumped, with booking sites offering rooms for 500 pounds ($645), roughly five times the normal price levels.

Police said after an initial assessment, they were not treating the incident at the power substation as suspicious, although enquiries remained ongoing. London Fire Brigade said its investigations would focus on the electrical distribution equipment.

Heathrow and London’s other major airports have been hit by other outages in recent years, most recently by an automated gate failure and an air traffic system meltdown, both in 2023.

Americans are voting with their feet and a new analysis shows Texas and Florida are projected to gain electoral college votes in 2030 while California and New York will lose votes.

These new numbers confirm Americans are rejected the Democrats’ liberal, pro-abortion agenda as they move to pro-life conservative states that better represent their family values.

Texas is on a trajectory to significantly enhance its political influence by potentially gaining four congressional seats following the 2030 Census. This anticipated growth underscores the state’s robust population increase and economic vitality, positioning it as a pivotal player in national politics.

REACH PRO-LIFE PEOPLE WORLDWIDE! Advertise with LifeNews to reach hundreds of thousands of pro-life readers every week. Contact us today.

The state’s burgeoning population is a testament to its business-friendly environment, low taxes, and commitment to pro-life and family values—principles that have long been championed by Republicans. The state was the first America, even before Dobbs, to protect babies from abortions. These factors have attracted families and businesses seeking opportunities and freedom, contributing to Texas’s demographic expansion.

With the addition of these congressional seats, Texas will wield greater influence in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Electoral College. The Republican-controlled state legislature will oversee the redistricting process, ensuring that the new congressional maps are drawn to reflect the interests and values of conservative Texans.

Meanwhile, Florida is right behind, which is also expected to gain four seats according to data from the American Redistricting Project (ARP).

On the Democrat side, California is projected to lose three seats, and New York to lose two.

In fact, recent figures show that most of the states currently gaining in population are pro-life are pro-life red states while most of the states losing population are pro-abortion blue states. This bodes well for future presidential and Congressional elections, to keep the White House and Congress in pro-life Republican hands and away from radical pro-abortion Democrats who want abortions up to birth nationwide.

The post Texas and Florida Will Gain Electoral Votes, California and New York Will Lose Them appeared first on LifeNews.com.