London Heathrow Airport
London Heathrow Airport
London Heathrow Airport (IATA: LHR, ICAO: EGLL) – named London Airport until 1966 – is the primary and largest international airport serving London, the capital 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 2025, Heathrow was the busiest airport in Europe, the fifth-busiest airport in the world by passenger traffic and the second-busiest airport in the world by international passenger traffic. Heathrow was the airport with the most international connections in the world in 2024. 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 km) west of Central London on a site that covers 4.74 square miles (12.3 km2). It was gradually expanded over 75 years and now has two parallel east–west runways, four operational passenger terminals and one cargo terminal. The airport is the primary hub for British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.
Location
51.471°N, 0.460°O · 25 m s. n. m. (83 ft)
General data
Runways · 2
Lengths and surfaces from the public OurAirports register; open runways only.
Radio frequencies · 16 Official publication
Tower
Ground
Clearance delivery
ATIS (automatic information)
Approach
Frequencies from the official publication: UK AIP (NATS), AIRAC 01 OCT 2026, checked on Oct 16, 2026. They change with each amendment: not for navigation without checking the current AIP. See the official publication In MHz.
History
The airport was opened on 25 March 1946 as London Airport; it was renamed Heathrow Airport in the last week of September 1966, to avoid confusion with the other two main airports which serve London: Gatwick and Stansted. The airport's Central Terminal Area (CTA) was designed by Sir Frederick Gibberd, who set out the terminals and central-area buildings, including the control tower and the multi-faith St George's Chapel.
Airlines operating here · 84
Other airlines with direct routes
List taken from the airport’s own website (September 2026).
Photo: Konstantin Von Wedelstaedt · GFDL 1.2 · view original
Data from OurAirports (public domain) · destinations and airlines from Wikipedia route tables (CC BY-SA, 2026), unless another source is given · profile and photo from Wikidata/Wikimedia Commons (CC0 / CC) · summary and history from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).
Cite
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This page was last updated on October 15, 2026
APA
Vuelopedia. (2026, October 15). London Heathrow Airport (LHR). Retrieved October 16, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/LHR
MLA
“London Heathrow Airport (LHR).” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 15 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/airport/LHR. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.
Chicago
Vuelopedia. “London Heathrow Airport (LHR).” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 15, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/LHR.
Harvard
Vuelopedia (2026) London Heathrow Airport (LHR). Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/LHR (Accessed: 16 October 2026).
BibTeX
@misc{vuelopedia_en_airport_lhr,
author = {{Vuelopedia}},
title = {{London Heathrow Airport (LHR)}},
publisher = {Fundación Poderia},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-10-15},
url = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/LHR},
howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/LHR}},
urldate = {2026-10-16},
note = {Accessed 2026-10-16}
}Wikipedia
{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/LHR |title=London Heathrow Airport (LHR) |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-15 |access-date=2026-10-16 |language=en}}