A body representing more than 90 airlines has warned it could take legal action against Heathrow Airport for costs incurred during the day-long closure last Friday. Last Friday, Europe’s busiest airport was forced to close after a fire at a nearby generator jeopardised power to the site.

Handling over 200,000 passengers everyday, the consequences of the closure saw thousands of travellers stranded abroad and is estimated to have cost the airline industry millions of pounds. The chief executive of Heathrow Airline Operators' Committee Nigel Wicking hopes that a settlement can be reached with the airport to compensate airlines for their lost income and additional costs. He told Sky News: “If we don't get good enough recourse and repayment in terms of the costs, then yes, there might be a case for legal action,” but claimed that he hoped to find an “amicable” solution.

On the prospect of legal action, he added: "I would hope not. But in some of these situations that's the only course once you've gone through everything else.”

The disruption saw more than 1,200 flights cancelled with some planes returned to their airport of origin and others diverted to airports across Europe and Asia.

Energy secretary Ed Miliband said he was working with energy regulator Ofgem and the National Energy System Operator to investigate the fire at the substation incident.

On Friday, counter-terrorism police were tasked with investigating the cause of the fire which caused chaos for surrounding houses and businesses who rely on the power.

Mr Wicking urged authorities to quickly establish the cause of the incident, which Heathrow have described as “generational”.

He said: "Airlines have a regulatory duty to take care of their passengers, but in this particular case, we do feel that it was another party that caused the situation."

Over the weekend, the National Grid CEO, John Pettigrew said that two other substations were working and “had the capacity” to supply the airport with the power it needed.

He told the Financial Times: “There was no lack of capacity from the substations. Each substation individually can provide enough power to Heathrow.

“Two substations were always available for the distribution network companies and Heathrow to take power.

“Losing a substation is a unique event – but there were two others available. So that is a level of resilience.

A Heathrow statement refuted the accusation, claiming that “Heathrow’s size and operational complexity” meant that “safely restarting operations after a disruption of this magnitude was a significant challenge.”

In a statement it said: “As the National Grid’s chief executive, John Pettigrew, noted, he has never seen a transformer failure like this in his 30 years in the industry.

"His view confirms that this was an unprecedented incident and that it would not have been possible for Heathrow to operate uninterrupted.

"Hundreds of critical systems across the airport were required to be safely powered down and then safely and systematically rebooted.

"Given Heathrow’s size and operational complexity, safely restarting operations after a disruption of this magnitude was a significant challenge.

"In line with our airline partners, our objective was to reopen as soon as safely and practically possible after the fire.