Heathrow Airport (IATA: LHR, ICAO: EGLL) is a major international airport in Hillingdon, London, England, United Kingdom. Heathrow remains one of the world’s leading air hubs: in 2024, it handled a record 83.9 million passengers, marking a 5.9 % increase over the previous year. It is the busiest airport in Europe by passenger traffic and ranks among the top globally.
The airport is located about 14 miles (23 km) west of Central London. It operates two parallel runways — the northern runway is 3,902 m long, and the southern runway is 3,658 m. Heathrow generally runs in a “segregated mode”: arriving aircraft use one runway, while departing aircraft use the other, with the runways swapped daily (usually around 15:00) to reduce noise impact.
Heathrow has four operational terminals (Terminals 2, 3, 4, and 5). In 2023, Terminal 2 (the “Queen’s Terminal”) handled 18.1 million passengers, while Terminal 3 saw 19.7 million.
The airport is owned and operated by Heathrow Airport Holdings, which is itself owned by a consortium. Key shareholders include Ardian, Qatar Investment Authority, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, GIC, the Australian Retirement Trust, China Investment Corporation, and others.
Heathrow is operating at or very near its maximum permitted capacity: it is allowed up to 480,000 air-traffic movements (ATMs) per year, and in 2023 it operated at 95% of that cap. Because of this, the airport is pushing ahead with expansion plans: its proposal includes a third runway, a new terminal (“T5X”), and modernization of existing terminals.
Despite the capacity constraints, Heathrow maintains strong performance. In 2025 it was described as “Europe’s most punctual major hub,” and in July 2025 it recorded its busiest month ever with 7.98 million passengers, while 95 % of passengers waited less than five minutes at security