What airports can learn from the Iberian power outage

The major power outage that swept across large parts of mainland Spain and Portugal on 28 April resulted in widespread disruption, including in the aviation sector.

According to the electricity operator Red Electrica, a 15 gigawatts drop in electricity was experienced in less than five seconds – representing roughly 60% of the electricity demand on a regular activity day.

The massive power cut caused immediate impacts at major international airports, including Madrid-Barajas, Barcelona El-Prat and other airports in the Iberian Peninsula such as Lisbon. In Spain, 344 out of 6,000 scheduled flights were cancelled.

With the lights out, airports had to act fast. Some ground stops were put in place to keep things safe and manageable. As Spain’s Prime Minister Sanchez said, “Air traffic has not been affected, although we have decided to reduce it by 20% to ensure safety and smooth traffic.” But with only partial power, even basic services were a challenge.

The blackout didn’t just affect the airports – it brought public transport to a standstill. Metros, trains and even traffic lights stopped working, leading to gridlock and making it tough for passengers and staff to get to or from the airport. Emergency services and airport teams scrambled to keep things moving, but the lack of access made everything harder.

Despite the disruption caused by the power outage, airport operators took swift action to restore essential services. This included establishing crisis committees at all airports and maintaining continuous communication with airlines, air traffic control and infrastructure partners to coordinate the response.

The use of contingency generators enabled airports to remain operational, with 93% of commercial flights continuing to fly on the day of the outage. However, the main bottlenecks were related to access and external infrastructure, as transportation disruptions made it difficult for passengers and crews to reach the terminals.

This means that even when power was re-established using backup generators, and airport infrastructure is fully operational, flight disruptions can continue as they can depend on the challenges faced by passengers and crew in reaching the airport.

The blackout serves as a powerful reminder that even the most robust airport resilience strategies can be undermined by vulnerabilities in external infrastructure. What happened in Iberia stands in a similar category to disruption at Heathrow Airport in March. When a fire at a nearby substation triggered a full power outage, Heathrow responded by suspending all operations for nearly 18 hours.

These two cases, while sharing commonalities, highlight that the context and infrastructure at different airports may affect the response to such incidents.

While airports are preparing for climate-related and operational disruptions, both incidents demonstrated the importance of tailored resilience strategies and robust coordination with energy providers and other external partners. For the aviation industry, these events serve as timely reminders that operational resilience plans must be adaptable, learning from diverse scenarios to ensure continuity and minimize passenger disruption in future crises.

So, what should airports focus on to mitigate the impact of any future disruptions of that magnitude?

Spain saw economic losses of about €1.4 billion, with insurance claims alone estimated between €100 million and €300 million. While these numbers are huge, the aviation sector managed to avoid even bigger problems thanks to smart planning.

When the lights went out, Spain’s airports faced some delays and cancellations. But because they had backup generators and solid emergency plans, they kept most operations running. This meant fewer flights were cancelled and less chaos for travellers and airlines alike.

So, what’s the takeaway? Investing in backup power and crisis plans might seem expensive up front, but it pays off when disaster strikes. For aviation, where every minute of downtime can cost a fortune and damage reputations, being prepared is non-negotiable.