THE AIRPORTS OF LONDON
- Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton
London Heathrow:
Heathrow (LHR), the largest of London's 6 airports, is the busiest airport in Europe and the 3rd busiest in the world! It handles the largest number of international passengers of all airports in the world (2011). I have visited London Heathrow 4 times: when switching planes to New York in 1998, to Los Angeles in 2011, when going to London in 1999 and when switching planes to Toronto in 2016. The airport is really huge, once we had to take a bus that passed under a long tunnel and through roads, trafficated only by airport vehicles, to get to the other terminal. Another time we took the underground pathway beneath the runway to get to the other side of a terminal. Heathrow has 12 runways, 5 passenger terminals and is the main hub of British Airways. Heathrow started in 1929 as a small airfield and is situated in the London borough of Hillingdon, in the west outskirts of London.
This page includes plane spotting pictures of the world's largest passenger aircrafts: Boeing 787 Dreamliner, Airbus A380 and Boeing 747.
A Boeing 747 operated by British Airways.
British Airways planes dominates Heathrow.
Modern architecture with glass elevators and escalators in one of the terminals.
Long escalators take you to the other side of Terminal 3 on the other side of the runway.
The waiting area of Terminal 3.
Heathrow is like a city of itself. It has a large number of stores, here a brand of Harrods.
Our AA plane and one of the control towers. Not unexpectedly, it rained in London, when we switched planes from the BA flight from Copenhagen to the AA flight to New York JFK.
Heathrow, Europe's largest and busiest airport. Landing from Copenhagen, heading to Toronto.
British Airways aircrafts: Boeing 747, for long the world's largest plane and a Airbus A380, the largest plane of the future.
Flight from Egypt Air.
An Airbus A380 from Qatar Airways, first time I have seen this plane, that is the world's largest passenger aircraft. It has two passenger decks and one freight deck and has been dubbed the "Superjumbo". It can take up to 853 passengers.
An Air Canada flight. We flew with Air Canada to Toronto.
Plane spotting.
The large terminal of Heathrow and the back of an Air Canada plane.
Boeing 787 Dreamliner. This was my first flight with the world's second largest aircraft, launched as late as in 2011. It is really large inside and the wingspan is huge, 60m!
Landing at Heathrow with a SAS plane, right above a highway. The traffic on the left side and the grey sky tells you that you are in Britain!
Landing at Heathrow.
London Gatwick:
Gatwick Airport (LGW) is London's 2nd largest airport. It lies in Crawley, West Sussex, which is 45km South of London. It is the 2nd busiest airport in the UK regarding passenger traffic, after Heathrow. It occupies an area of 674 hecatares. Gatwick opened as an aerodrome in the 1920s and was open for commerical flights in 1933. The airport has two runways only, and two terminals; North and South. There is a futuristic bridge that connects the North runway with the airport apron.
I travelled to Gatwick from Copenhagen with Norwegian in April 2022, my 3rd time in London, and also the first time I landed on this airport.
Taking the train from Gatwick Airport to London Bridge Station in the evening.
London Stansted
Stansted is the 3rd largest airport in London, after Heathrow and Gatwick. It is mostly operated by lowfare airlines and is situated 68km Northeast of London. Stansted opened as a military airfield in 1943, but after the war in the late 40s, it was converted to a commercial airport. The control tower was completed in 1996. I flew from Sturup to Stansted in 2006 and from Stansted to Copenhagen in 2022, both with Ryanair. A driverless train takes passengers from the terminal to the gates in a futuristic way.
There is only one runway and one terminal, built 1981 and designed by Norman Foster.
I had diner at Camden Bar and Grill in Stansted.
The train that took us to the gate.
The driverless train to the gate.
Ryanair's rent Lauda Air plane to Copenhagen. We had to wait for a long time outside before we could border the plane!
We had to walk on the ground to reach the plane from the gate!
