|
General
|
|
Located 23 kilometres west of London, Heathrow is Europe's busiest airport, handling more than sixty million passengers and more than 440.000 movements a year. It is the homebase of the British Airways fleet. American Airlines and United are the only Americans here. Almost all of the European airlines visit Heathrow more times a day, so do the main carriers from Asia like Korean Air, Air China, All Nippon and Japan Air Lines. Among the regular visitors to Heathrow are the aircraft from the Sultan of Brunei, the Amir of Qatar and the Sheikh of the United Arab Emirates. Other movements of bizjets are quite slow.
|
back to top
|
|
Layout
|
The Central Area
|
|
There are three runways, 09L-27R, 09R-27L and 05-23 and four terminals. Terminal s one is mainly used for British airlines and airlines like South African, terminal two is the terminal for allmost all the european airlines, except for KLM and Air Malta. At terminal three you can find most of the non-BA long range flights and Virgin. Terminal four is the main terminal for British Airways but KLM, Air Malta and SriLankan, also are using it. On top of terminal two is the roof terrace. From the terrace you have a view over the airport but some areas are obstructed by the vast amount of buildings. Everything using runway 09R-27L can be seen, but aircraft on the other runways can only be seen briefly. On the terrace is also an aviationshop and a snackcorner. There are some multi-storeys car parks and some other parts of the airport can be seen from the top levels of the carparks.
|
back to top
|
|
Around The Airport
|
Runway 27L
|
|
There is a perimeter road, but the fence is almost everywhere heavily screened, so views are minimal. However, there are some spots near underground station Hatton Cross. Walk out of the station on the righthand side and cross the road. Then turn right and follow the footpath until you reach a field. Here at this field some good quality pictures can be made of aircraft arriving on runway 27L.
|
Runway 27R
|
|
If you leave the station on the left side and walk straight on, over the footbridge, you will eventually reach the British Airways maintenance hangar. The taxiway and the normal road crosses here, and sometimes some good pictures of aircraft parked at the maintenance can be obtained. If you walk past the maintenance area, you will come at a roundabout and now you are near the approach of runway 27R. Some good pictures can be made here also. But beware, the companies here are anti spotter, so during working hours you might get sent away. Apart from these two good spots, Heathrow can be a very frustrating airport.
|
back to top
|
|
Getting There
|
|
Getting to Heathrow is quite easy, the Piccadilly Line of the London underground stops at Terminal 4, Terminal 1,2 & 3 and at Hatton Cross. The journey from downtown London takes up to one hour. The trains run in one direction only: downtown - Hatton Cross - Terminal 4 - Terminal 1,2 & 3 - Hatton Cross - downtown. A faster way is the special train service from London-Paddington, but beware of the prices, these trains are very expensive. Journey time is about 20 minutes from Paddington to Terminal 1,2 & 3. The train service between the central terminal area and Terminal 4 is free of charge. A free busservice also runs between the terminals but this can take quite a lot of time during rushhours. Other busservices are also operating from the central busstation in front of terminal 2 to the neighbouring towns and to central London. Also from this busstation, and from Terminal 4, the coach services to the other London airports depart.
|
back to top
|
|
|
 |
|
Photo: Paul Sliwinski
|
 |
|
Photo: Paul Sliwinski
|
|
|
Based
|
A319
A320
B737-400
B747-400
B757-200
B767-300
B777-200
|
A320
A321
|
A340
B747-200
B747-400
|
|
|
Neighbourhood Airports
|
 |
London-Gatwick
|
The airport south of London with scheduled and charter traffic |
|
London-Stansted
|
A busy airport to the northeast of London |
|
London-Luton
|
An airport to the north of London with a lot of executive traffic |
|
London-City
|
A small airport in the centre of London |
|
More Info
|
|
BAA
|
The official LHR homepage |
|
Heathrow and Gatwick
|
Heathrow movements |
|
Preserved
|
|
G-AWZK
|
This Trident is now painted in old BEA c/s and can be found near the BA hangars
|
|
Frequencies
|
|
121.7
|
Ground
|
|
121.9
|
Ground
|
|
121.975
|
Delivery
|
|
118.5
|
Tower
|
|
118.7
|
Tower
|
|
124.475
|
Tower
|
|
119.725
|
Director
|
|
120.4
|
Director
|
|
127.525
|
Director
|
|
134.975
|
Director
|
|
113.75
|
ATIS - Arrival
|
|
115.1
|
ATIS - Arrival
|
|
121.85
|
ATIS - Departure
|
|
123.9
|
ATIS - Arrival
|
|
|
Send Updates !
|
Do you have updates ? Or is something not listed correctly ? Please let us know ! Fill in the form and send back to us. We appreciate your help very much. Only thanks to your input we can maintain an up to date information. And you can help other spotters with your information as well !
|
|
|
|
