London Heathrow Airport Information - History

London Heathrow Airport (IATA: LHR, ICAO: EGLL) is a passenger airport located 12 miles west of Central London. The UK's busiest airport, Heathrow is the busiest airport in the European Union in terms of passenger traffic and the second busiest in terms of traffic movements, second to Paris CDG airport in Paris, France. The airport is owned and operated by BAA, who also own and operate five other UK airports. Heathrow is a primary hub for a number of large international carriers including BMI, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways.

The airport owes some of its history to World War Two, as Heathrow was originally planned to become an RAF transfer station; however, by 1944 these plans had been dropped in favour of the development of a new civilian air base to handle the newly emerging, larger civil aircraft that were, at the time, adapted from military aircraft. By 1944 construction of the concrete runways had begun and by the start of 1946 the first civil flight took off to Buenos Aires, via Lisbon.

The post-war period marked rapid advancement in civil air flight with Heathrow well placed to grow with this emerging demand. By 1947 Heathrow boasted 3 runways and was already London's primary airport. Despite this, the airport terminal facilities were crude with tents acting as immigration and arrivals/departure areas well into the 1950s.

By 1953 the airport had its first purpose built terminal, known as the Europa Building, the terminal was to become the old Terminal 2 building which is itself being remodelled and developed as Heathrow continues to grow. The new terminal buyilding was unique ion that the building was located within the star of Heathrow's runways and as such necessitated the need for an expensive under runway tunnel which is still the only way in/out of the terminal complex.

The late 1950s and 1960s witnessed rapid growth in air travel with Terminal 3 opening at Heathrow in 1961 and then with Terminal 1 in 1968. By this time Heathrow was handling over 14 million passengers per year.

Nowadays Heathrow Airport is used by over 90 airlines which fly to 170 destinations worldwide. The airport is the primary hub of BMI, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways.

Of Heathrow's 67 million annual passengers, 11% travel to UK destinations, 43% are short-haul international travellers, and 46% are long-haul. The busiest single destination in terms of passenger numbers is New York, with over 3.7 million passengers travelling between Heathrow and JFK / Newark airports in 2008[23] and 3.5 million in 2009. The airport has five passenger terminals (Terminals 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5) and a cargo terminal. Terminal 5 opened to passengers on 27 March 2008 and will be fully completed with the opening of its second satellite building in 2010.

Heathrow originally had six runways, arranged in three pairs at different angles, with the passenger terminal in the centre. With growth in the required length for runways, Heathrow now has just two parallel runways running east-west. Runway 23, a short runway for use in strong south-westerly winds, was decommissioned in 2005 and now forms part of a taxiway.

In 2006, the new £105 million Pier 6 was completed at Terminal 3 in order to accommodate the Airbus A380 superjumbo, providing four new aircraft stands. Other modifications totalling in excess of £340 million were also carried out across the airfield in readiness for the Airbus A380. The first A380 test flight into Heathrow took place on 18 May 2006, but following delays to the aircraft's production, scheduled services did not commence from Heathrow until 18 March 2008, when Singapore Airlines Flight 380, the first A380 in passenger service, registered 9V-SKA of Singapore Airlines touched down from Singapore carrying 470 passengers, marking the first ever European commercial flight by the Airbus A380.

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