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91-487: Compass Centre is an office building on the grounds of Heathrow Airport in the London Borough of Hillingdon . The building serves as Heathrow Airport Holdings 's head office. Compass Centre previously served as a British Airways flight crew centre. The Compass Centre was originally conceived as speculative offices for Lynton plc, which was the property development division of Heathrow Airport Limited . British Airways

182-418: A claimed 200,000 square feet (19,000 m) of office space. The design stems from a client's request for a building that could be easily divided between tenants. The building can accommodate sub-letting and flexibility involving several tenants. Reinforced concrete was used to construct the structural frame due to economy, fire resistance, and speed. The frame has a raked roof slab and circular columns. Glass

273-430: A lack of transparency over the way in which the figures are calculated. The airport has always refused to publish a breakdown showing how many "Fly Quiet points" each performance benchmark has contributed towards the total score it awards to an airline, thereby putting obstacles in the way of any independent auditing of the published results. Among other criticisms of the league table are the unexplained omission of some of

364-463: A large, on-airport facility close to its operations, so it decided to use the Compass Centre. Compass Centre consists of a linear arrangement of three connected blocks; East, Meridian (placed in the middle) and West, with Meridian slightly larger than the other two. Each block has three floors and is split again into North and South sides, with Meridian having a glass atrium. The arrangement provides

455-448: A model of an Emirates Airbus A380 since 2008. Heathrow Airport has Anglican , Catholic , Free Church , Hindu , Jewish , Muslim and Sikh chaplains. There is a multi-faith prayer room and counselling room in each terminal, in addition to St. George's Interdenominational Chapel in an underground vault adjacent to the old control tower, where Christian services take place. The chaplains organise and lead prayers at certain times in

546-550: A new airport is built, replacing the old one, leaving the city's new "major" airport (or the only remaining airport) code to no longer correspond with the city's name. The original airport in Nashville, Tennessee, was built in 1936 as part of the Works Progress Administration and called Berry Field with the designation, BNA. A new facility known as Nashville International Airport was built in 1987 but still uses BNA. This

637-539: A new shared Heathrow Terminal 5 station . A dedicated motorway spur links the terminal to the M25 (between junctions 14 and 15). The terminal has 3,800   spaces multi-storey car park . A more distant long-stay car park for business passengers is connected to the terminal by a personal rapid transit system, the Heathrow Pod , which became operational in the spring of 2011. An automated people mover (APM) system, known as

728-591: A priority since the combined business will require accommodation at Heathrow under one roof to maximise the cost savings envisaged under the deal. A proposal for Concourse D was featured in Heathrow's Capital Investment Plan 2009. The transport network around the airport has been extended to cope with the increase in passenger numbers. New branches of both the Heathrow Express and the Underground's Piccadilly line serve

819-589: A site that covers 4.74 square miles (12.3 square kilometres). It was gradually expanded over 75 years and now has two parallel east–west runways , four operational passengers terminals and one cargo terminal. The airport is the primary hub for British Airways and Virgin Atlantic . Heathrow is 14 miles (23 km) west of Central London . It is located 3 miles (5 km) west of Hounslow , 3 miles (5 km) south of Hayes , and 3 miles (5 km) north-east of Staines-upon-Thames . Heathrow falls entirely within

910-593: A third runway to the north of the airport, which would significantly increase traffic capacity. Policing of the airport is the responsibility of the aviation security , a unit of the Metropolitan Police , although the British Army , including armoured vehicles of the Household Cavalry , has occasionally been deployed at the airport during periods of heightened security. Full body scanners are now used at

1001-513: A £200   million upgrade to enable it to accommodate 45   airlines with an upgraded forecourt to reduce traffic congestion and improve security. Most flights using Terminal 4 are those from/to East Europe, Central Asia, North Africa and the Middle East as well as a few flights from/to Europe. An extended check-in area with renovated piers and departure lounges and a new baggage system were installed, and four new stands were built to accommodate

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1092-499: Is GSN and its IATA code is SPN, and some coincide with IATA codes of non-U.S. airports. Canada's unusual codes—which bear little to no similarity with any conventional abbreviation to the city's name—such as YUL in Montréal , and YYZ in Toronto , originated from the two-letter codes used to identify weather reporting stations in the 1930s. The letters preceding the two-letter code follow

1183-600: Is available. However, many railway administrations have their own list of codes for their stations, such as the list of Amtrak station codes . Airport codes arose out of the convenience that the practice brought pilots for location identification in the 1930s. Initially, pilots in the United States used the two-letter code from the National Weather Service (NWS) for identifying cities. This system became unmanageable for cities and towns without an NWS identifier, and

1274-573: Is dedicated to British Airways's narrowbody fleet for flights around the UK and the rest of Europe, the first satellite (Concourse B) includes dedicated stands for BA and Iberia's widebody fleet except for the Airbus A380, and the second satellite (Concourse C), includes 7 dedicated aircraft stands for the A380. It became fully operational on 1 June 2011. Terminal 5 was voted Skytrax World's Best Airport Terminal 2014 in

1365-518: Is different from the name in English, yet the airport code represents only the English name. Examples include: Due to scarcity of codes, some airports are given codes with letters not found in their names: The use of 'X' as a filler letter is a practice to create three-letter identifiers when more straightforward options were unavailable: Some airports in the United States retained their NWS ( National Weather Service ) codes and simply appended an X at

1456-473: Is exclusively used by British Airways as its global hub. However, because of the merger, between 25 March 2012 and 12 July 2022, Iberia's operations at Heathrow were moved to the terminal, making it the home of International Airlines Group . On 12 July 2022, Iberia's flight operations were moved back to Terminal 3. On 7 July 2020, American moved to Terminal 5, to allow for easier connections from American's transatlantic flights to British Airways flights during

1547-650: Is governed by IATA Resolution 763, and it is administered by the IATA's headquarters in Montreal , Canada. The codes are published semi-annually in the IATA Airline Coding Directory. IATA provides codes for airport handling entities, and for certain railway stations. Alphabetical lists of airports sorted by IATA code are available. A list of railway station codes , shared in agreements between airlines and rail lines such as Amtrak , SNCF , and Deutsche Bahn ,

1638-444: Is home to Oneworld members (with the exception of Malaysia Airlines , Qatar Airways and Royal Air Maroc , all of which use Terminal 4), SkyTeam members Aeroméxico , China Airlines , Delta Air Lines , Middle East Airlines , Virgin Atlantic , and several long haul unaffiliated carriers. British Airways also operates several flights from this terminal, as do Iberia and Vueling . Opened in 1986, Terminal 4 has 22 gates . It

1729-513: Is in conjunction to rules aimed to avoid confusion that seem to apply in the United States, which state that "the first and second letters or second and third letters of an identifier may not be duplicated with less than 200 nautical miles separation." Thus, Washington, D.C. area's three airports all have radically different codes: IAD for Washington–Dulles , DCA for Washington–Reagan (District of Columbia Airport), and BWI for Baltimore (Baltimore–Washington International, formerly BAL). Since HOU

1820-532: Is not followed outside the United States: In addition, since three letter codes starting with Q are widely used in radio communication, cities whose name begins with "Q" also had to find alternate codes, as in the case of: IATA codes should not be confused with the FAA identifiers of U.S. airports. Most FAA identifiers agree with the corresponding IATA codes, but some do not, such as Saipan , whose FAA identifier

1911-485: Is primarily used by Star Alliance airlines (consolidating the airlines under Star Alliance's co-location policy "Move Under One Roof"). The terminal is also used by a few non-aligned airlines. Terminal 2 is one of the two terminals that operate UK and Irish domestic flights. Although Scandinavian Airlines is now part of the SkyTeam alliance as of 1 September, 2024, it still uses Terminal 2. The original Terminal 2 opened as

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2002-643: Is situated to the south of the southern runway next to the cargo terminal and is connected to Terminals 2 and 3 by the Heathrow Cargo Tunnel . The terminal has an area of 105,481 m (1,135,390 sq ft) and is now home to the SkyTeam alliance; except Scandinavian Airlines which uses Terminal 2, and China Airlines , Aeroméxico , Delta Air Lines , Middle East Airlines , and Virgin Atlantic which use Terminal 3 - Oneworld carriers Malaysia Airlines , Qatar Airways , Royal Air Maroc , and Gulf Air and to most unaffiliated carriers. It has undergone

2093-562: Is the main international airport serving London , the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom . It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others being Gatwick , Stansted , Luton , City and Southend ). The airport is owned and operated by Heathrow Airport Holdings . In 2023, Heathrow was the busiest airport in Europe ,

2184-416: Is used for William P. Hobby Airport , the new Houston–Intercontinental became IAH. The code BKK was originally assigned to Bangkok–Don Mueang and was later transferred to Suvarnabhumi Airport , while the former adopted DMK. The code ISK was originally assigned to Gandhinagar Airport (Nashik's old airport) and later on transferred to Ozar Airport (Nashik's current airport). Shanghai–Hongqiao retained

2275-608: The Airports Commission , an independent commission chaired by Sir Howard Davies to examine various options for increasing capacity at UK airports. In July 2015, the commission backed a third runway at Heathrow, which the government approved in October 2016. However, the Court of Appeal rejected this plan, on the basis that the government failed to consider climate change and the environmental impact of aviation . On 16 December 2020,

2366-561: The Canadian transcontinental railroads were built, each station was assigned its own two-letter Morse code : When the Canadian government established airports, it used the existing railway codes for them as well. If the airport had a weather station, authorities added a "Y" to the front of the code, meaning "Yes" to indicate it had a weather station or some other letter to indicate it did not. When international codes were created in cooperation with

2457-849: The Covid-19 pandemic, West Block was reconfigured for the vaccination rollout, handling more than 100,000 people in less than 2 years. Compass Centre also hosts Heathrow Airport's Operation Centre (second floor, East Block). Opened in 2014, it hosts all the key functions of the airport (Security, Engineering, Police, Fire, IT etc.) in one place, along with a video wall containing 60 flatscreen panels. [REDACTED] Media related to Compass Centre at Wikimedia Commons 51°28′51″N 0°28′08″W  /  51.4809°N 0.4689°W  / 51.4809; -0.4689 Heathrow Airport Heathrow Airport ( / ˌ h iː θ ˈ r oʊ , ˈ h iː θ r oʊ / ), called London Airport until 1966 ( IATA : LHR , ICAO : EGLL ), and now known as London Heathrow,

2548-604: The M25 motorway . The airport is located within the Hayes and Harlington parliamentary constituency. As the airport is located west of London and as its runways run east–west, an aircraft's landing approach is usually directly over the Greater London Urban Area when the wind has a westerly component — as it often has. The airport forms part of a travel to work area consisting of (most of) Greater London, and neighbouring parts of

2639-556: The Transit , transports airside passengers between the main terminal building and the satellite concourses. As of 22 June 2024, Heathrow's four passenger terminals are assigned as follows: Following the opening of Terminal 5 in March 2008, a complex programme of terminal moves was implemented. This saw many airlines move to be grouped in terminals by airline alliance as far as possible. IATA airport code The assignment of these codes

2730-669: The UK Supreme Court lifted the ban on the third runway expansion, allowing the construction plan to go ahead. Until it was required to sell Gatwick and Stansted Airports, Heathrow Airport Holdings, owned mostly by FGP and Qatar Investment Authority and CDPQ held a dominant position in the London aviation market and has been heavily regulated by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) as to how much it can charge airlines to land. The annual increase in landing charge per passenger

2821-421: The fourth-busiest airport in the world by passenger traffic and the second-busiest airport in the world by international passenger traffic . As of 2023, Heathrow is the airport with the most international connections in the world. Heathrow was founded as a small airfield in 1930 but was developed into a much larger airport after World War II . It lies 14 miles (23 kilometres ) west of Central London on

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2912-475: The Airbus A380; Qatar Airways operates regular A380 flights. Terminal 5 lies between the northern and southern runways at the western end of the Heathrow site and was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 14 March 2008, 19 years after its inception. It opened to the public on 27 March 2008, and British Airways and its partner company Iberia have exclusive use of this terminal, which has 50   gates, including three hardstands. The first passenger to enter Terminal 5

3003-475: The Annual World Airport Awards. The main terminal building (Concourse A) has an area of 300,000 square metres (3,200,000 sq ft) while Concourse B covers 60,000 square metres (650,000 sq ft). It has 60 aircraft stands and capacity for 30   million passengers annually as well as more than 100   shops and restaurants. It is also home to British Airways' Flagship lounge,

3094-532: The Concorde Room, alongside four further British Airways branded lounges. One of those lounges is the British Airways Arrivals Lounge which is located land-side. A further building, designated Concourse D and of similar size to Concourse C, may yet be built to the east of the existing site, providing up to another 16   stands. Following British Airways' merger with Iberia , this may become

3185-596: The Europa Building in 1955 and was the airport's oldest terminal. It had an area of 49,654 m (534,470 sq ft) and was designed to handle around 1.2   million passengers annually. In its final years, it accommodated up to 8   million. A total of 316   million passengers passed through the terminal in its lifetime. The building was demolished in 2010, along with the Queens Building which had housed airline company offices. Terminal 3 opened as

3276-458: The Oceanic Terminal on 13 November 1961 to handle flight departures for long-haul routes for foreign carriers to the United States and Asia. At this time the airport had a direct helicopter service to central London from the gardens on the roof of the terminal building. Renamed Terminal 3 in 1968, it was expanded in 1970 with the addition of an arrivals building. Other facilities added included

3367-484: The UK Government continued to develop the site as a civil airport. The airport was opened on 25 March 1946 as London Airport. The airport was renamed Heathrow Airport in the last week of September 1966, to avoid confusion with the other two airports which serve London, Gatwick and Stansted . The design for the airport was by Sir Frederick Gibberd . He set out the original terminals and central-area buildings, including

3458-464: The UK's first moving walkways . In 2006, the new £105   million Pier 6 was completed to accommodate the Airbus A380 superjumbo; Emirates and Qantas operate regular flights from Terminal 3 using the Airbus A380. Redevelopment of Terminal 3's forecourt by the addition of a new four-lane drop-off area and a large pedestrianised plaza, complete with a canopy to the front of the terminal building,

3549-499: The US and UK signed a new US-UK Air Transport Agreement in November 2020 incorporating the essential elements of Open Skies, which came into effect in March 2021. The airport was criticised in 2007 for overcrowding and delays; according to Heathrow Airport Holdings, Heathrow's facilities were originally designed to accommodate 55   million passengers annually. The number of passengers using

3640-694: The US. In 1991, Pan Am and TWA sold their rights to United Airlines and American Airlines respectively, while Virgin Atlantic was added to the list of airlines allowed to operate on these routes. The Bermuda II Air Service Agreement was superseded by a new " open skies " agreement that was signed by the United States and the European Union on 30 April 2007 and came into effect on 30 March 2008. Shortly afterwards, additional US airlines, including Northwest Airlines , Continental Airlines , US Airways and Delta Air Lines started services to Heathrow after previously having to use Gatwick Airport . Following Brexit ,

3731-481: The United States, because "Y" was seldom used in the United States, Canada simply used the weather station codes for its airports, changing the "Y" to a "Z" if it conflicted with an airport code already in use. The result is that most major Canadian airport codes start with "Y" followed by two letters in the city's name (for example, YOW for O tta w a , YWG for W innipe g , YYC for C algar y , or YVR for V ancouve r ), whereas other Canadian airports append

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3822-426: The air, almost all of the original runways can still be seen, incorporated into the present system of taxiways. North of the northern runway and the former taxiway and aprons, now the site of extensive car parks, is the entrance to the access tunnel and the site of Heathrow's unofficial " gate guardian ". For many years the home of a 40% scale model of a British Airways Concorde , G-CONC; the site has been occupied by

3913-458: The aircraft to their final approach, merging aircraft from the four holds into a single stream of traffic, sometimes as close as 2.5 nautical miles (4.6 km; 2.9 mi) apart. Considerable use is made of continuous descent approach techniques to minimise the environmental effects of incoming aircraft, particularly at night. Once an aircraft is established on its final approach, control is handed over to Heathrow Tower. When runway alternation

4004-440: The airport itself instead of the city it serves, while another code is reserved which refers to the city itself which can be used to search for flights to any of its airports. For instance: Or using a code for the city in one of the major airports and then assigning another code to another airport: When different cities with the same name each have an airport, they need to be assigned different codes. Examples include: Sometimes,

4095-422: The airport reached a record 70   million in 2012. In 2007 the airport was voted the world's least favourite, alongside Chicago O'Hare , in a TripAdvisor survey. However, the opening of Terminal 5 in 2008 has relieved some pressure on terminal facilities, increasing the airport's terminal capacity to 90   million passengers per year. A tie-up is also in place with McLaren Applied Technologies to optimise

4186-418: The airport's former name, such as Orlando International Airport 's MCO (for Mc C o y Air Force Base), or Chicago's O'Hare International Airport , which is coded ORD for its original name: Or char d Field. In rare cases, the code comes from the airport's unofficial name, such as Kahului Airport 's OGG (for local aviation pioneer Jimmy H ogg ). In large metropolitan areas, airport codes are often named after

4277-423: The airport, and passengers who refuse to use them are required to submit to a hand search in a private room. The scanners display passengers' bodies as cartoon figures, with indicators showing where concealed items may be. For many decades Heathrow had a reputation for theft from baggage by baggage handlers. This led to the airport being nicknamed "Thiefrow", with periodic arrests of baggage handlers. Following

4368-537: The boundaries of the London Borough of Hillingdon , and under the Twickenham postcode area , with the postcode TW6. It is surrounded by the villages of Sipson , Harlington , Harmondsworth , and Longford to the north and the neighbourhoods of Cranford and Hatton to the east. To the south lie Feltham , Bedfont and Stanwell while to the west Heathrow is separated from Slough , Horton and Windsor in Berkshire by

4459-533: The centre (e.g. Camborne Road). The top cargo export destinations include the United States, China and the United Arab Emirates handling 1.4 million tonnes of cargo in 2022. The top products exported were books, salmon and medicine. Aircraft destined for Heathrow are usually routed to one of four holding points . Air traffic controllers at Heathrow Approach Control (based in Swanwick, Hampshire ) then guide

4550-494: The charges for landing at Heathrow are determined by the CAA and Heathrow Airport Holdings, the allocation of landing slots to airlines is carried out by Airport Co-ordination Limited (ACL). Until 2008, air traffic between Heathrow and the United States was strictly governed by the countries' bilateral Bermuda II treaty. The treaty originally allowed only British Airways, Pan Am and TWA to fly from Heathrow to designated gateways in

4641-491: The code SHA, while the newer Shanghai–Pudong adopted PVG. The opposite was true for Berlin : the airport Berlin–Tegel used the code TXL, while its smaller counterpart Berlin–Schönefeld used SXF; the Berlin Brandenburg Airport has the airport code BER, which is also part of its branding. The airports of Hamburg (HAM) and Hannover (HAJ) are less than 100 nautical miles (190 km) apart and therefore share

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4732-874: The end. Examples include: A lot of minor airfields without scheduled passenger traffic have ICAO codes but not IATA codes, since the four letter codes allow more number of codes, and IATA codes are mainly used for passenger services such as tickets, and ICAO codes by pilots. In the US, such airfields use FAA codes instead of ICAO. There are airports with scheduled service for which there are ICAO codes but not IATA codes, such as Nkhotakota Airport/Tangole Airport in Malawi or Chōfu Airport in Tokyo, Japan. There are also several minor airports in Russia (e.g., Omsukchan Airport ) which lack IATA codes and instead use internal Russian codes for booking. Flights to these airports cannot be booked through

4823-433: The existing paths which were spread out. The zones used alternated weekly, meaning residents in the "no-fly" areas received respite from aircraft noise for set periods. However, it was concluded that some residents in other areas experienced more noise as a consequence of the trial and that it should therefore not be taken forward in its current form. Heathrow received more than 25,000 noise complaints in just three months over

4914-536: The first six weeks ( United Airlines ' transatlantic flights) to avoid the opening problems seen at Terminal 5. On 4 June 2014, United became the first airline to move into Terminal 2 from Terminals 1 and 4 followed by All Nippon Airways , Air Canada and Air China from Terminal 3. Air New Zealand , Asiana Airlines , Croatia Airlines , LOT Polish Airlines , South African Airways , and TAP Air Portugal moved in on 22 October 2014. Flights using Terminal 2 primarily originate from northern Europe or western Europe. It

5005-557: The first three letters of the city in which it is located, for instance: The code may also be a combination of the letters in its name, such as: Sometimes the airport code reflects pronunciation, rather than spelling, namely: For many reasons, some airport codes do not fit the normal scheme described above. Some airports, for example, cross several municipalities or regions, and therefore, use codes derived from some of their letters, resulting in: Other airports—particularly those serving cities with multiple airports—have codes derived from

5096-474: The following format: Most large airports in Canada have codes that begin with the letter "Y", although not all "Y" codes are Canadian (for example, YUM for Yuma, Arizona , and YNT for Yantai , China), and not all Canadian airports start with the letter "Y" (for example, ZBF for Bathurst, New Brunswick ). Many Canadian airports have a code that starts with W, X or Z, but none of these are major airports. When

5187-593: The form of " YYZ ", a song by the rock band Rush , which utilizes the Morse code signal as a musical motif. Some airports have started using their IATA codes as brand names , such as Calgary International Airport (YYC) and Vancouver International Airport (YVR). Numerous New Zealand airports use codes that contain the letter Z, to distinguish them from similar airport names in other countries. Examples include HLZ for Hamilton , ZQN for Queenstown , and WSZ for Westport . Predominantly, airport codes are named after

5278-460: The four main holds. The following four stacks are currently in place: In high-traffic situations, air traffic controllers can opt to use a number of RNAV STARs either to send traffic to a non-standard stack or to move traffic from one stack to another. These are not allowed to be used for flight planning and will be assigned by ATC tactically. In September 2012, the British government established

5369-446: The general procedure, reducing delays and pollution. With only two runways operating at over 98% of their capacity, Heathrow has little room for more flights, although the use of larger aircraft such as the Airbus A380 has allowed some increase in passenger numbers. It is difficult for existing airlines to obtain landing slots to enable them to increase their services from the airport, or for new airlines to start operations. To increase

5460-546: The head office was completed in September 2009, after Heathrow Airport Limited (then BAA) moved into the building. The Compass Centre was designed by Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners , which designed the core, external works, and shell of the building. Compass Centre is alongside but slightly askew from Heathrow's northern runway, with the Northern Perimeter Road, T5 Long Stay car park and Compass Centre car park between

5551-482: The international air booking systems or have international luggage transferred there, and thus, they are booked instead through the airline or a domestic booking system. Several heliports in Greenland have 3-letter codes used internally which might be IATA codes for airports in faraway countries. There are several airports with scheduled service that have not been assigned ICAO codes that do have IATA codes, especially in

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5642-612: The name of the airport itself, for instance: This is also true with some cities with a single airport (even if there is more than one airport in the metropolitan area of said city), such as BDL for Hartford, Connecticut 's B ra dl ey International Airport or Baltimore's BWI, for B altimore/ W ashington I nternational Airport ; however, the latter also serves Washington, D.C. , alongside Dulles International Airport (IAD, for I nternational A irport D ulles) and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA, for D istrict of C olumbia A irport). The code also sometimes comes from

5733-532: The nominated departure runway, to help reduce airborne delays and to position landing aircraft closer to their terminal, reducing taxi times. Night-time flights at Heathrow are subject to restrictions . Between 23:00 and 04:00, the noisiest aircraft (rated QC /8 and QC/16) cannot be scheduled for operation. Also, during the night quota period (23:30–06:00) there are four limits: A trial of "noise-relief zones" ran from December 2012 to March 2013, which concentrated approach flight paths into defined areas compared with

5824-402: The number of flights, Heathrow Airport Holdings has proposed using the existing two runways in 'mixed mode' whereby aircraft would be allowed to take off and land on the same runway. This would increase the airport's capacity from its current 480,000 movements per year to as many as 550,000 according to former British Airways CEO Willie Walsh . Heathrow Airport Holdings has also proposed building

5915-416: The one they are located in: Other airport codes are of obscure origin, and each has its own peculiarities: In Asia, codes that do not correspond with their city's names include Niigata 's KIJ , Nanchang 's KHN and Pyongyang 's FNJ . EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg , which serves three countries, has three airport codes: BSL, MLH, EAP. Some cities have a name in their respective language which

6006-468: The original control tower and the multi-faith Chapel of St George's. Heathrow Airport is used by over 89 airlines flying to 214 destinations in 84 countries. The airport is the primary hub of British Airways and is a base for Virgin Atlantic . It has four passenger terminals (numbered 2 to 5) and a cargo terminal. In 2021 Heathrow served 19.4 million passengers, of which 17 million were international and 2.4 million domestic. The busiest year ever recorded

6097-400: The other. To further reduce noise nuisance, the use of runways 27R and 27L is swapped at 15:00 each day if the wind is from the west. When landings are easterly there is no alternation; 09L remains the landing runway and 09R the takeoff runway due to the legacy of the now rescinded Cranford Agreement , pending taxiway works to allow the roles to be reversed. Occasionally, landings are allowed on

6188-427: The pandemic. However, all American flights, except JFK, have returned to Terminal 3. China Southern Airlines used Terminal 5 due to the pandemic until it was relocated to Terminal 4 in November 2022. Built for £4.3   billion, the terminal consists of a four-story main terminal building (Concourse A) and two satellite buildings linked to the main terminal by an underground people mover transit system. Concourse A

6279-416: The pattern closest to their arrival route. They can be visualised as a helix in the sky. Each stack descends in 1,000 feet (305 m) intervals from 16,000 feet (4,877 m) down to 8,000 feet (2,438 m). Aircraft hold between 7,000 and 15,000 feet (2,134 and 4,572 m) at 1,000-foot intervals. If these holds become full, aircraft are held at more distant points before being cleared onward to one of

6370-415: The poorer performers among the 50 busiest airlines and the emphasis on relative rather than absolute performance, so an airline could well improve its "Fly Quiet" score quarter-on-quarter even if its environmental performance had in fact worsened over the period. In October 2024, Heathrow finally reinstated the programme, rebadged as “Fly Quieter & Greener”. Two more environmental benchmarks were added to

6461-408: The prayer room. The airport has its resident press corps, consisting of six photographers and one TV crew, serving all the major newspapers and television stations around the world. Most of Heathrow's internal roads’ names are coded by their first letter: N in the north (e.g. Newall Road), E in the east (e.g. Elmdon Road), S in the south (e.g. Stratford Road), W in the west (e.g. Walrus Road), C in

6552-794: The previous seven, but in all other respects the aforementioned deficiencies of the original scheme remain. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic Heathrow has seen a large increase in cargo-only flights, not only by already established carriers at the airport operating cargo-only flights using passenger aircraft but also by several cargo-only airlines. Inbound aircraft to London Heathrow Airport typically follow one of several Standard Arrival Routes (STARs). The STARs each terminate at one of four different VOR installations , and these also define four "stacks" where aircraft can be held if necessary until they are cleared to begin their approach to land. Stacks are sections of airspace where inbound aircraft will normally use

6643-457: The runway and the Compass Centre. In 1995 Penny McGuire of The Architectural Review said that "Its shining glass and bright blue clad exterior reminds you, particularly when seen glowing at night, that one of the largest and busiest airports in the world is otherwise encumbered with a really grim collection of buildings. Decent ones are a rare sight around here." It was designed to house up to 800 British Airways employees. British Airways wanted

6734-501: The same first and middle letters, indicating that this rule might be followed only in Germany. Many cities retain historical names in their airport codes, even after having undergone an official name/spelling/transliteration change: Some airport codes are based on previous names associated with a present airport, often with a military heritage. These include: Some airports are named for an administrative division or nearby city, rather than

6825-402: The shape of a hexagram with the permanent passenger terminal in the middle and the older terminal along the north edge of the field; two of its runways would always be within 30° of the wind direction. As the required length for runways has grown, Heathrow now has only two parallel runways running east–west. These are extended versions of the two east–west runways from the original hexagram. From

6916-497: The station code of Malton, Mississauga , where it is located). YUL is used for Montréal–Trudeau (UL was the ID code for the beacon in the city of Kirkland , now the location of Montréal–Trudeau). While these codes make it difficult for the public to associate them with a particular Canadian city, some codes have become popular in usage despite their cryptic nature, particularly at the largest airports. Toronto's code has entered pop culture in

7007-550: The summer of 2016, but around half were made by the same ten people. In 2017, Heathrow introduced "Fly Quiet & Green", a quarterly published league table (suspended in 2020 due to the Covid pandemic) that awards points to the 50 busiest airlines at the airport, ostensibly based on their performance relative to each other across a range of seven environmental benchmarks, such as NO x emissions. Heathrow has acknowledged, but not attempted to refute, criticism over discrepancies and

7098-407: The surrounding Home Counties . Heathrow Airport began in 1929 as a small airfield ( Great West Aerodrome ) on land southeast of the hamlet of Heathrow from which the airport takes its name. At that time the land consisted of farms, market gardens and orchards ; there was a "Heathrow Farm" approximately where the modern Terminal 2 is situated, a "Heathrow Hall" and a "Heathrow House." This hamlet

7189-504: The two-letter code of the radio beacons that were the closest to the actual airport, such as YQX in Gander or YXS in Prince George . Four of the ten provincial capital airports in Canada have ended up with codes beginning with YY, including: Canada's largest airport is YYZ for Toronto Pearson (as YTZ was already allocated to Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport , the airport was given

7280-529: The use of two letters allowed only a few hundred combinations; a three-letter system of airport codes was implemented. This system allowed for 17,576 permutations, assuming all letters can be used in conjunction with each other. Since the U.S. Navy reserved "N" codes, and to prevent confusion with Federal Communications Commission broadcast call signs , which begin with "W" or "K", the airports of certain U.S. cities whose name begins with one of these letters had to adopt "irregular" airport codes: This practice

7371-462: The widespread disruption caused by reports of drone sightings at Gatwick Airport , and a subsequent incident at Heathrow, a drone-detection system was installed airport-wide to attempt to combat disruption caused by the illegal use of drones. The airport's newest terminal, officially known as the Queen's Terminal, was opened on 4 June 2014 and has 24 gates. Designed by Spanish architect Luis Vidal , it

7462-408: Was 2019 when 80.9 million passengers travelled through the airport. Heathrow is the UK's largest port by value with a network of over 218 destinations worldwide. The busiest single destination in passenger numbers is New York, with over three   million passengers flying between Heathrow and JFK Airport in 2021. In the 1950s, Heathrow had six runways, arranged in three pairs at different angles in

7553-425: Was a UK ex-pat from Kenya who passed through security at 04:30 on the day. He was presented with a boarding pass by British Airways CEO Willie Walsh for the first departing flight, BA302 to Paris. During the two weeks after its opening, operations were disrupted by problems with the terminal's IT systems, coupled with insufficient testing and staff training, which caused over 500 flights to be cancelled. Terminal 5

7644-400: Was a prospective but not necessarily a sole tenant. The airline decided to consolidate its scattered operations into the Compass Centre. In August 1992 on-site construction began. The building was completed 15 months later. When Heathrow Terminal 5 opened on 27 March 2008, British Airways staff, including crew check-in staff, relocated from the Compass Centre to Terminal 5. A refurbishment of

7735-545: Was built on the site that had been occupied by the original Terminal 2 and the Queens Building. The main complex was completed in November 2013 and underwent six months of testing before opening to passengers. It includes a satellite pier (T2B), a 1,340-space car park, and a cooling station to generate chilled water. There are 52 shops and 17 bars and restaurants. The airlines moved from their original locations over six months, with only 10% of flights operating from there in

7826-488: Was capped at inflation minus 3% until 1 April 2003. From 2003 to 2007 charges increased by inflation plus 6.5% per year, taking the fee to £9.28 per passenger in 2007. In March 2008, the CAA announced that the charge would be allowed to increase by 23.5% to £12.80 from 1 April 2008 and by inflation plus 7.5% for each of the following four years. In April 2013, the CAA announced a proposal for Heathrow to charge fees calculated by inflation minus 1.3%, continuing until 2019. Whilst

7917-605: Was completed in 2007. These improvements were intended to improve passengers' experience, reduce traffic congestion and improve security. As part of this project, Virgin Atlantic was assigned its dedicated check-in area, known as 'Zone A', which features a large sculpture and atrium. As of 2013 , Terminal 3 has an area of 98,962 m (1,065,220 sq ft) with 28 gates, and in 2011 it handled 19.8   million passengers on 104,100   flights. Most flights from Terminal 3 are long-haul flights from North America, Asia and other foreign countries other than Europe. Terminal 3

8008-476: Was introduced, aircraft generated significantly more noise on departure than when landing, so a preference for westerly operations during daylight was introduced, which continues to this day. In this mode, aircraft take off towards the west and land from the east over London, thereby minimising the impact of noise on the most densely populated areas. Heathrow's two runways generally operate in segregated mode, whereby landings are allocated to one runway and takeoffs to

8099-451: Was largely along a country lane (Heathrow Road), which ran roughly along the east and south edges of the present central terminals area. Development of the whole Heathrow area as a much larger airport began in 1944 during World War II . It was intended for long-distance military aircraft bound for the Far East. By the time some of the airfield's runways were usable, World War II had ended, and

8190-556: Was sold to Prologis . The building has its own restaurant on the first floor of the West Block, and a Caffe Nero concession on the Meridian ground floor under the glass atrium. The Meridian ground floor also houses a visitors suite with a number of meeting rooms secured separately to the staff-only access of the rest of the building. The ground floor of West block is normally used as a training centre with its own entrance and reception. During

8281-410: Was the primary material used to construct the shell, because glass has little radar interference, and in the words of McGuire, can be "acoustically efficient." The design limits heat gain and solar glare, and the building environment is sound-proofed. The British Council for Offices awarded the building the "Best Delivered Workplace." In 2008, ownership passed from BAA to Arora Group , and in 2021, it

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