London Heathrow Airport

Travel Guide Europe United Kingdom England London London Heathrow Airport

Introduction

London Heathrow Airport (IATA: LHR, ICAO: EGLL) is the largest airport in the Greater London area, and many international flights will arrive at Heathrow. One of the world's busiest airports, Heathrow is crowded and known for outrageous line-ups and lost luggage. No any other airport handles as many international travellers as Heathrow.

For more information about other airports throughout the world, also see the list of airports.

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Getting there and away

There are numerous options to get to and from Heathrow Airport.

By Train

London Heathrow Express

Heathrow Express is a non-stop train service that offers the fastest travel option to Paddington station in central London. Services run every 15 minutes and the journey time is just 15 minutes; a few minutes more for Terminals 4 or 5. A standard single ticket (2010) purchased online is £16.50 (£18.00 from ticket machine/office; £23.00 purchased onboard) and a standard return is £32.00 (£32.00 from ticket machine/office; £37.00 purchased onboard).

Heathrow Connect is a stopping train service between London Paddington and Heathrow Airport, and calls at Ealing Broadway, West Ealing, Hanwell, Southall and Hayes & Harlington. Running every 30 minutes, a journey takes up to 25 minutes. Single tickets are from £4.90 to £7.90, depending on the destination.

Terminal 5 London/Heathrow

Heathrow is on the Piccadilly line of the London Underground network, with three stops at the airport – Terminals 1 and 3; Terminal 4 and Terminal 5. There are two different train services; one stopping at Terminals 1 and 3 and Terminal 4, while the other at Terminals 1 and 3 and Terminal 5. Journey time to central London is under an hour and you shouldn't have to wait longer than 10 minutes for a train – even off-peak. A single ticket into central London (Zone 1) costs £4.

By Bus

Heathrow Airport is served by an extensive network of local buses which operate from the central bus station. Some services also stop at Terminal 4. Services into west London are part of the Transport for London network. A single adult fare for anywhere in London is £2. The bus station is well signposted from Terminals 1 and 3 and is located above the London Underground station. Access from Terminals 1 and 3 is via underground walkways. The approximate walking distance from Terminal 1 is four minutes, and from Terminal 3 is seven minutes. The routes from the airport can be found on this map. Information on services can be found at the TfL website or by calling +44 (0)20 7222 1234.

You can also connect National Express directly. Their buses numbers 032, 035, 403, 412 and 501 (one way/return from £10/15, tickets valid three months; 45 minutes to 70 minutes, every 30 minutes to one hour) link Heathrow with Victoria coach station (7730 3466; 164 Buckingham Palace Rd SW1) over 50 times per day. The first bus leaves the Heathrow Central Bus station (at Terminals 1, 2 and 3) at 5:35am while the last departure leaves at 9:35pm. In the other direction, the first bus leaves Victoria at 7:15am, the last at 11:30pm.

By Taxi

Taxis are available at Heathrow Airport 24 hours a day. There are taxi ranks at all terminals, as well as taxi information desks inside. It costs about £45 to £70 to central London and the average journey time is approximately an hour.

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Getting around

Terminals 1 and 3 are within walking distance of each other. Transport to Terminal 4 is by Heathrow Connect trains or bus and to Terminal 5 is by Heathrow Express trains or bus. On Heathrow Express, Heathrow Connect and local buses the sections between Heathrow Central, Terminal 4 and Terminal 5 are free of charge.

ULTra Personal Rapid Transport is currently being constructed as a trial shuttling passengers to and from Terminal 5. The initial trial will have 18 pods running. ULTra are small transportation pods that can fit four adults, two children, and their luggage and will be able to carry passengers directly to the terminal. The pods are battery powered and will be initially used on a four-kilometre track. If the trial is successful there are plans for a roll out airport wide.

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Airlines and Terminals

There are currently four terminals in operation: Terminals 1 and 3; Terminal 4; Terminal 5. Also check the List of Airlines for the websites of these airlines. Or check the information about budget airlines.

Terminal 1

Aegean Airlines - Athens
Aer Lingus - Belfast-International, Cork, Dublin, Shannon
Air New Zealand Auckland, Hong Kong, Los Angeles
Asiana Airlines - Seoul-Incheon
Austrian Airlines - Vienna
Austrian Airlines operated by Tyrolean Airways - Vienna
BMI - Addis Ababa, Almaty, Amman, Baku, Beirut, Belfast-City, Berlin-Tegel, Bishkek, Cairo, Damascus, Dammam, Dublin, Edinburgh, Freetown, Glasgow-International, Jeddah, Kefalonia, Khartoum, Manchester, Moscow-Domodedovo, * Riyadh, Tbilisi, Tehran-Imam Khomeini, Vienna, Yerevan
BMI operated by BMI Regional - Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow-International, Hanover, Manchester
Brussels Airlines - Brussels
Croatia Airlines - Split, Zagreb
Cyprus Airways - Larnaca, Paphos
El Al - Tel Aviv
Icelandair - Reykjavik-Keflavík
LOT Polish Airlines - Warsaw
Lufthansa - Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Milan-Malpensa, Munich
Lufthansa operated by BMI - Cologne/Bonn, Dresden, Hamburg, Milan-Malpensa
Lufthansa Regional operated by Contact Air - Stuttgart
Lufthansa Regional operated by Eurowings - Düsseldorf, Stuttgart
Lufthansa Regional operated by Lufthansa CityLine - Stuttgart
South African Airways - Cape Town, Johannesburg
Swiss International Air Lines - Geneva, Zürich
Swiss International Air Lines operated by BMI - Geneva
TAM Airlines - Rio de Janeiro-Galeão, São Paulo-Guarulhos
TAP Portugal - Lisbon
Transaero - Moscow-Domodedovo
United Airlines - Chicago-O'Hare, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington-Dulles
US Airways - Philadelphia

Terminal 3

Terminal 3 by night

Air Canada - Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Montréal-Trudeau, Ottawa, St. John's, Toronto-Pearson, Vancouver
Air China - Beijing-Capital
Air India - Amritsar, Delhi, Mumbai, Toronto-Pearson
Air Mauritius - Mauritius
All Nippon Airways - Tokyo-Narita
American Airlines - Boston, Chicago-O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Miami, New York-JFK, Raleigh/Durham
Blue1 - Helsinki
British Airways - Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Barcelona, Gibraltar, Helsinki, Lisbon, Madrid, Málaga, Singapore, Sydney, Vienna
Cathay Pacific Airways - Hong Kong
EgyptAir - Cairo, Luxor
Emirates - Dubai
Ethiopian Airlines - Addis Ababa
EVA Air - Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Taipei-Taoyuan
Finnair - Helsinki
Iberia Airlines - Madrid
Iran Air - Tehran-Imam Khomeini, Shiraz
Japan Airlines - Tokyo-Narita
Middle East Airlines - Beirut
Oman Air - Muscat
Pakistan International Airlines - Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Sialkot
Qantas - Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Singapore, Sydney
Qatar Airways - Doha
Royal Jordanian - Amman
Saudi Arabian Airlines - Dammam, Jeddah, Riyadh
Scandinavian Airlines - Copenhagen, Gothenburg-Landvetter, Oslo-Gardermoen, Stavanger, Stockholm-Arlanda
Singapore Airlines - Singapore
Thai Airways International - Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi
Turkish Airlines - Istanbul-Atatürk
Turkmenistan Airlines - Ashgabat
Virgin Atlantic Airways - Accra, Boston, Cape Town, Chicago-O'Hare, Delhi, Dubai, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, Lagos, Los Angeles, Miami, Nairobi, New York-JFK, Newark, San Francisco, Shanghai-Pudong, Sydney, Tokyo-Narita, Washington-Dulles
Vueling Airlines - La Coruña, Bilbao, Seville

Terminal 4

Aeroflot - Moscow-Sheremetyevo
Air Algérie - Algiers
Air Astana - Almaty
Air France - Paris-Charles de Gaulle
Air France operated by Airlinair - Paris-Charles de Gaulle
Air Malta - Malta
Air Seychelles - Mahé
Air Transat - Toronto-Pearson
Alitalia - Milan-Linate, Rome-Fiumicino
Alitalia operated by Air One - Rome Fiumicino
Arik Air - Abuja, Lagos
Atlas Blue - Tangier
Azerbaijan Airlines - Baku
Biman Bangladesh Airlines - Dhaka, Dubai
Bulgaria Air - Sofia
China Airlines - Taipei-Taoyuan
China Eastern Airlines - Shanghai-Pudong
Continental Airlines - Houston-Intercontinental, Newark
Czech Airlines - Prague
Delta Air Lines - Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York-JFK
Etihad Airways - Abu Dhabi
Gulf Air - Bahrain
Jat Airways - Belgrade
Jet Airways - Delhi, Mumbai
Kenya Airways - Nairobi
Kingfisher Airlines - Delhi, Mumbai
KLM - Amsterdam
KLM operated by KLM Cityhopper - Amsterdam
Korean Air - Seoul-Incheon
Kuwait Airways - Kuwait, New York-JFK
Libyan Airlines - Tripoli
Malaysia Airlines - Kuala Lumpur
Olympic Air - Athens, Thessaloniki
Rossiya - St Petersburg
Royal Air Maroc - Casablanca
Royal Brunei Airlines - Bandar Seri Begawan, Dubai
SriLankan Airlines - Colombo, Malé
Syrian Air - Damascus
TAROM - Bucharest-Otopeni
Tunisair - Tunis
Uzbekistan Airways - Tashkent

Terminal 5

British Airways - Aberdeen, Abu Dhabi, Abuja, Accra, Algiers, Amsterdam, Athens, Atlanta, Bahrain, Baltimore, Bangalore, Basel/Mulhouse, Beijing-Capital, Belgrade, Berlin-Tegel, Boston, Brussels, Bucharest-Otopeni, Budapest, Buenos Aires-Ezeiza, Cairo, Calgary, Cape Town, Chennai, Chicago-O'Hare,Cochin,Colombo,Copenhagen, Dallas/Fort Worth, Dar es Salaam, Delhi, Denver, Doha, Dubai, Düsseldorf, Edinburgh, Entebbe, Frankfurt, Geneva, Glasgow-International, Grand Cayman, Hamburg, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Houston-Intercontinental, Hyderabad, Istanbul-Atatürk, Jeddah, Johannesburg, Kiev-Boryspil, Kumasi, Kuwait, Lagos, Larnaca, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Luanda, Lusaka, Lyon, Manchester, Mauritius, Mexico City, Miami, Milan-Linate, Milan-Malpensa, Montréal-Trudeau, Moscow-Domodedovo, Mumbai, Munich, Muscat, Nairobi, Nassau, New York-JFK, Newark, Newcastle upon Tyne, Nice, Oslo-Gardermoen, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pisa, Prague, Providenciales, Rio de Janeiro-Galeão, Riyadh, Rome-Fiumicino, St Petersburg, San Francisco, São Paulo-Guarulhos, Seattle/Tacoma, Shanghai-Pudong, Sofia, Stockholm-Arlanda, Stuttgart, Tel Aviv, Tokyo-Narita, Toronto-Pearson, Toulouse, Tripoli, Vancouver, Venice-Marco Polo, Warsaw, Washington-Dulles, Zürich

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