London Stansted Airport announced early Wednesday that travelers should expect flight delays following a small fire in one of its lounges. The incident led to a temporary closure of the security area to protect passengers from smoke.
The blaze, located north of London, erupted around 3:30 a.m. local time and was quickly brought under control. The airport promptly evacuated the immediate vicinity and temporarily shut down its security zone as a safety precaution.
By 6 a.m., roughly twenty minutes after the airport’s first scheduled departure affected by the incident, security operations had resumed. However, airport spokesman Mark Davison confirmed that significant delays were still anticipated.
“There will definitely be delays just because passengers haven’t been able to get to their flights,” he stated in a brief phone interview.
Mr. Davison noted that the extent of these delays would largely depend on how individual airlines manage their flight schedules in response to the disruption.
While some train services to Stansted experienced early morning delays, Mr. Davison clarified that these were unrelated to the fire incident at the airport.
Stansted is a key travel hub, one of London’s six major airports. According to recent figures from Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority, it ranked as the third busiest among them last year, trailing only Heathrow and London Gatwick Airports.