Stansted Airport Flights Resume After Forecourt Fire

London’s Stansted Airport reopened on Saturday after a shuttle bus fire outside the terminal caused the cancellation of all flights on Friday evening.

The airport’s website had a terse note saying “Following the earlier incident involving a shuttle bus fire on the Terminal forecourt, we confirm that the Airport will be open tomorrow and flights are expected to operate as normal.”

The airport advised passengers to contact their airline to check for the latest flight information about their journey.

The fire, which started about 16:20 (4.20pm) on Friday afternoon, was caused by an electrical fault on a shuttle bus parked outside the terminal.

The fire service had the fire under control about 30 minutes after it started, but there was some smoke damage to the terminal.

The front of the terminal was cleared, but the airport’s decision to allow unscreened people airside to avoid the front of the terminal led to the decision to cancel flights for the rest of the day rather than rescreen all passengers.

The airport’s biggest customer airline Ryanair apologised for the delays and inconvenience caused by the disruption and said further flight delays and cancellations are likely. Ryanair passengers on flights to/from London Stansted on Saturday should check with the airline on flight status.

Flights departing Stansted on Saturday morning appeared to be operating normally, but passengers should still check with their airline to confirm.