Jetorama

Watching Heathrow live

Two runways running flat out, Terminal 5 at the west end.

London Heathrow Airport · London

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The layout

Heathrow works its two parallel runways, 09L/27R and 09R/27L, harder than any other airport works two runways. The terminals sit between them: Terminal 2 and Terminal 3 in the central area, Terminal 4 south of the southern runway, and Terminal 5, British Airways' home, at the western end. From above, the central terminal area is an island reached by tunnels, ringed by the taxiways that feed both runways.

The airport is capped at its current number of flights, so every slot is used and every minute matters.

How the flow works

Westerly operations prevail about seven days in ten: aircraft arrive from the east over central London, following the Thames, and depart to the west. To share the noise, Heathrow alternates which runway lands and which departs, switching at three in the afternoon. Watch the runway lights on the map change ends when that happens.

Arrivals are metered from four holding stacks around London, so aircraft often appear on the edge of the map having just left a hold, already in a line. On the ground, the queue for departure can stretch along the taxiway with a dozen aircraft nose to tail in the morning peak.

What to watch for

Heathrow is Europe's great widebody airport: British Airways' A380s, A350s, 787s and 777s, Virgin Atlantic, and the flagships of airlines from every continent. The early morning is the show, when the overnight flights from Asia and North America arrive in a wave that lasts until mid-morning. Night flights are restricted, so the map goes quiet after eleven and wakes at six.

Myrtle Avenue, a small park under the 27L approach, is the spotting spot; in the miniature, the same aircraft slide in over Hatton Cross a few hundred feet up.

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