When a major fire incident and power outage disrupted operations at Heathrow Airport in March, we faced a critical challenge: ensuring minimal disruption for our valued clients who work in the TV, sport and film industries and who rely on us around the clock for seamless travel, accommodation and transport solutions.
While initial expectations suggested that Friday would be chaotic, the well-coordinated can-do, will-do efforts of our experienced teams resulted in a remarkably smooth resolution.
Proactive planning, rapid response
From the moment the issue became apparent, we took decisive and proactive action. A structured response plan was immediately put in place, ensuring that staff were available beyond their usual shifts, some logging in earlier and others staying later, to provide full coverage and adaptability throughout the day of the actual fire and days after.
Recognising the potential scale of the disruption, the team ran a detailed report early in the morning, identifying all flights that could be affected – both arrivals and departures from Heathrow as well as knock-on effects around the country in major city centre hotels.
Armed with this data, they were ready to assist travellers efficiently and as the day unfolded the scale of calls and enquiries intensified.
Client-centric Solutions
Communication was key during the crisis. The majority of our passengers reached out to us by phone and email, either directly or through their production coordinators, seeking alternative arrangements or layovers where needed.
Thanks to our experience with crisis incidents like this and our proactive always-on approach, most were successfully re-routed with minimal inconvenience and all within a short time frame.
A prime example of adaptability came when a passenger traveling from Copenhagen to London found themselves facing an uncertain journey. Rather than allowing disruption to derail their schedule, we calmly reassured the customer and arranged an alternative route via Paris, followed by a Eurostar connection into London.
For others, solutions included rerouting to different UK airports or accepting airline-provided alternatives for onward travel the following day.
Agility and adaptability
Throughout the day, our dedicated travel team demonstrated exceptional flexibility by continuously updating and adapting their plan based on real-time developments.
With each new challenge, they found solutions that met individual needs, ensuring that disruptions were kept to an absolute minimum while ensuring customers were kept in the loop and always updated.
Lessons in crisis management
This unfortunate case highlights our ability to provide swift, effective travel management and accommodation in unexpected circumstances. Our proactive planning, extended staff availability, and agile decision-making ensured passengers could navigate the Heathrow disruption with confidence and without unnecessary stress and anxiety.
When travel uncertainties arise, having a dedicated team capable of rapid problem-solving makes all the difference and for us, this event underscored our commitment to delivering reliable, client-focused solutions at short notice and when timings change continuously.
If you would like the Access Bookings team on your side for all things door-to-door travel related and would like an ally on your side when things don’t go to plan, please reach out to us on contactus@accessbookings.com.