Heathrow chaos as passengers abandon cars to walk to packed terminals

Latest in series of problems to hit UK's main hub the result of closure of nearby road tunnel

Queues at Heathrow Airport caused by the closure of a road tunnel leading to the terminals. Scott Roberts / X

Passengers complained of chaotic scenes at London's Heathrow Airport today after the unscheduled closure of a nearby road tunnel caused major disruption.

Terminal buildings were crammed with unhappy passengers, many of whom shared images of lengthy queues on social media. Nearby roads, including motorways, were gridlocked, with some travellers attempting to reach the airport forced to abandon their transport and walk with their luggage as traffic backed up.

In a statement, Heathrow said there had been a “technical issue” which had caused the closure of the road tunnel leading to terminals 2 and 3. Announcing the tunnel had reopened, the airport said there was “still congestion” and added “we recommend allowing extra time for your journey. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

Passenger Jane Boyd criticised Heathrow for failing to be prepared for such emergency situations. She shared an image of passengers crammed inside one of the terminals and described the situation as an “absolute mess”, adding that there were no staff to “direct lines of confused passengers”.

Sheila Carney Bowen sent a message to Aer Lingus saying there was “utter chaos” at Heathrow, with the airline's priority queue “swamped” with non members.

Another passenger who shared an image of a packed airport walkway said: “What a mess at Heathrow. Problems with the tunnel going to terminal three so traffic was backed up as everyone had to go around to other terminals and take the subway to three. Very little communication as to where to go.”

Malcolm Cowling wrote that the UK's major international hub airport appeared to be competing for the “Mickey Mouse Airport of the Year Award”. “Who in their right mind would fly from here unless you had to?” he said.

Today's problem is the latest to frustrate passengers. Last week, a “radar-related issue” caused an air traffic control (ATC) failure that grounded flights across the UK.

In March, the airport was closed for almost 24 hours after a fire in a nearby electricity substation caused a massive power cut, which cost the airport millions of pounds. More than 270,000 air passenger journeys were disrupted by the incident.

Last week, Indian-born businessman Surinder Arora set out his plans to go up against Heathrow in the battle to develop a third runway and new terminals at the UK's main hub. His £25 billion plan could go head to head with Heathrow's own grander £33 billion scheme to develop a longer runway that passes under the M25 motorway.