Heathrow Airport Guide
with Heathrow Car Rentals
Heathrow Airport - An Introduction
London Heathrow Airport (LHR), often referred to simply as Heathrow, is the third busiest airport in the world, and is the world's busiest for International passengers. Heathrow can also claim to be the UKs busiest airport and the largest Airport in Europe.
Heathrow Airport is located in Hayes, which is in the London Borough of Hillingdon, 15 miles west of Central London. It has two parallel main runways and four passenger terminals. A new terminal, Terminal 5, is under construction and there are plans to redevelop or rebuild other terminals.
Heathrow has four passenger terminals and a cargo terminal. More information about each terminal can be found by following the links to the right. Permission for a fifth passenger terminal (Terminal 5) was granted in November 2001, and construction is now well under way. It is expected to open in 2008.
Heathrow Airport - History
Heathrow opened in the 1930s as the Great Western Aerodrome. In 1944 Heathrow came under the control of the Ministry of Air. The Royal Air Force never made use of the airport and control was transferred to the Ministry of Civil Aviation on 1 January 1946 - the first civil flight that day being to Buenos Aires, via Lisbon for refuelling.
The airport opened fully for civilian use on 31 May 1946 and by 1947 Heathrow had three runways, with three more under construction. These older runways, built for piston-engined planes, were short, and criss-crossed to allow for all wind conditions.
The first concrete slab of the first modern runway was ceremonially placed by Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. She also opened the first terminal building, the Europa Building (later Terminal 2), in 1955. Shortly afterwards the Oceanic Terminal (later Terminal 3) became operational.
Terminal 1 was opened in 1968, completing the cluster of buildings at the centre of the Heathrow site. The location of the original terminals in the centre of the site has since become a constraint to expansion. This decision reflected an early assumption that airline passengers would not require extensive car parking, as air travel was then only affordable to the wealthy, who would, of course, be chauffeur-driven.
In 1977, the London Underground was extended to Heathrow - connecting the airport with Central London in just under an hour via the Piccadilly Line. Currently the loop to Terminal 4 is inactive, with all underground trains terminating at the station for Terminals 1, 2 and 3. This is to allow the connection of a spur line to Terminal 5; this extension is currently dubbed "PiccEx", an abbreviation of "Piccadilly Line Extension".
Terminal 4 was built away from the three older terminals, to the south of the southern runway. It opened in 1986 and became the home for then newly-privatised British Airways. In 1987, the British Government privatised the British Airports Authority (now just "BAA plc"), which included seven of Britain's airports, including Heathrow.