Beyond the Runways: The Story of London Heathrow

Over 80 airlines serve more than 200 international destinations from London's Heathrow Airport.

London Heathrow (LHR) is one of the best-known airports in the world, and one of the busiest. In fact, Heathrow is the busiest airport in Europe and in 2024, it had the greatest number of domestic and international seats, surpassing both Istanbul (IST) and Paris Charles De Gaulle (CDG). Heathrow also boasts the most international connections in the world. Coming up on its 80th anniversary next year, the airport has a long and interesting history. But, it might never have existed if it weren’t for a pilot by the name of Norman MacMillan who made an emergency landing at the site in 1925.

With the construction of a hangar in June of 1930, the Great West Aerodrome became operational.

A test pilot and officer for the Royal Air Force (RAF), MacMillan believed the area’s flat farm land would be ideal for a runway. He recommended the site to British engineer and aircraft builder Richard Fairey, who bought an empty 150-acre plot of land in the village of Harmondsworth, about 14 miles west of London for £15,000. (In today’s currencies, that investment would equate to over  £2.252 million or more than $3 million US.) There, he built a private airport for assembling and testing aircraft; called the Great West Aerodrome. It consisted of a single grass runway and a few small buildings. During the Second World War, the British government requisitioned Fairey’s airstrip and the nearby village of Heath Row, from which the airport later derived its name. The Royal Air Force (RAF) christened its new acquisition RAF Heston and began demolishing the village. New runways and a new control tower were built to replace Fairey’s rudimentary setup, and Heston served as a base for long-range flights carrying troops to Asia during the conflict. 

According to the UK News Outlet Surry Live, the Starlight's roundtrip journey took nearly 15 days.

By the end of World War II, the RAF no longer needed all the facilities under its jurisdiction, and most former air bases were decommissioned. RAF Heston, however, would not meet the same fate as the airport was transferred to the Air Ministry for conversion to London's primary civil airport. It was renamed London Airport on January 1, 1946, the same day a converted Lancaster bomber known as Starlight took to the skies, becoming the first commercial flight ever to operate from what would eventually become London’s Heathrow Airport. British South American Airways, a major carrier at the time, operated this flight from London to what would later become Ministro Pistarini International Airport (EZE) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The journey took over 35 hours and required multiple refueling stops along the way, in Lisbon, West Africa, and Brazil before reaching its destination.

Ex-military tents were first used as passenger terminals when the London Airport first opened.

During its first few years of operations, London Airport barely resembled what it is today. When passengers embarked on that first commercial flight to Buenos Aires, terminals were simply tents with wooden boards on the ground and were set up by different airlines. By the time their first year of operations ended, over 60,000 passengers had passed through the facility's doors, and numbers rose to nearly 800,000 by the end of the 1940s. Multiple renovation projects were completed within the next few years, including the construction of a 122-foot-tall control tower. But, the airport still had no permanent buildings. However, with the rapid growth of commercial air travel in the 1950s and the need for permanent structures, British architect Frederick Gibberd was hired to design a formal facility. By 1961 work was completed on two state-of-the-art terminals, dubbed Europa and Oceanic (eventually renamed Terminal 2 and Terminal 3, respectively). In 1966 London Airport was renamed Heathrow and by 1969, the airport was handling five million passengers per year.

Heathrow gained further worldwide prominence as home to British Airways' supersonic Concordes.

The following decade saw the launch of two of the world’s most famous aircraft designs. In 1970, Pan American World Airways began flying the first Boeing 747, commonly known as the Jumbo Jet, on its New York to Heathrow route. Then in 1976, the iconic Concorde made its first passenger flights, departing simultaneously from London Heathrow and Paris Orly (ORY) Airports. The Concorde was a joint venture between the British Aircraft Corporation and Sud Aviation which later became known as Aérospatiale. These two companies, representing the British and French aircraft industries respectively, collaborated on the design, development and manufacture of the supersonic airliner that  symbolized the cooperation between the UK and France. The Concorde was flown exclusively by British Airways and Air France. 

To prepare for the A380, Heathrow spent over £440 million on runway and taxiway improvements.

As the popularity of flying grew, so did the size of the airport. Terminal 4 opened in 1986, and in 2008 came Terminal 5. This is the airport’s largest terminal, built by Italian-born British architect Richard Rogers, and the departure point for most British Airways flights. In 1998 a private railway called the Heathrow Express began nonstop service between the airport and London’s Paddington Station. The journey takes only 15 minutes and I can attest it's a huge improvement over a taxi ride into central London that can take anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes, depending on traffic. Terminal 5 was not the only new construction at this time. In 2007, a new air traffic control tower opened, replacing the original one built in the 1950s.  At more than 285 feet, it’s tallest in the UK. And the A380 arrived in 2008, first using specially built airbridges at Terminal 3 and soon after at the new Terminal 5. A Singapore Airlines A380 was the first to fly into Heathrow and the first A380 flight into Europe.

Local residents marched along Harlington High Street in 2003 to protest plans for the third runway.

The coronavirus pandemic in 2020 significantly effected Heathrow's future plans. For many years, there had been an ongoing discussion about a third runway. In 2012, the UK Government formed the Independent Airports Commission group to look at the options for increasing airport capacity in the southeast of England. Possible options included a third runway at Heathrow, expansion and second runway at Gatwick Airport (LGW), and building a new Thames Estuary Airport to the east of London. In 2015, the commission concluded that the best option was expansion at Heathrow, with a third runway and a new terminal, to be built to the northwest of the airport. In 2016, the government voted in favor of this, but environmental campaign groups have since held up plans. They have argued that those expansion plans are unlawful as they failed to take into account commitments to tackle climate change. Undaunted, the government and the airport aim to have the third runway open by 2035. The project involves significant costs, including a potential rerouting of the M25 motorway and the demolition of the village of Sipson. In addition to the third runway, Heathrow also plans to expand its existing Terminals 2 and 5, described as the largest private investment program in the airport’s history.

The year 2024 was the airport’s busiest year as approximately 83.9 million passengers traveled from Heathrow to destinations across the globe. It’s a national asset and one of a handful of world-class hub airports with the connections, infrastructure, transport links and cargo capability to enable Britain to compete effectively on the world stage.

Until next time…safe travels.