The airport is owned and operated by Heathrow Airport Holdings. In 2022, it was the second-busiest airport in the world by international passenger traffic and the second busiest airport in Europe.
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Flights and passenger numbersIn 2021 Heathrow served 19.4 millions passengers, that's an average of 128,178 every day. Last year (2021), 87.6% of our passengers were international (17.0 million) versus 12.4% of passengers who were domestic (2.4 million).
When to arrive. We recommend getting to the airport three hours before your flight if you're travelling internationally, or two hours if you're travelling domestically or to Europe.
Check-in closes 60 minutes before long haul flights depart and 45 minutes before short haul flights depart. Pass through security at least 35 minutes before your flight departs. Be at the boarding gate at least 20 minutes before your flight departs. See the 'Boarding' section, below.
How long does it take to clear customs at Heathrow? On average, it takes between 30 minutes and 1 hour to clear customs and immigration at Heathrow Airport.
Terminal 5 at London Heathrow is the busiest airport terminal in the UK, with over 32 million passengers each year – more than Edinburgh Airport and Birmingham Airport combined.
We recommend that you allow at least 3 hours if you're connecting between these airports. Your baggage will not be automatically forwarded so please collect all your bags before leaving Heathrow or Gatwick airport.
London's Heathrow Airport has launched a six-month trial—aptly called “Heathrow Timeslot”—where travelers can pre-book a security slot, meaning that you may be able to avoid facing any lines whatsoever at security and effortlessly zoom straight through to the lounge.
Your flight will probably use a gate at one of the satellite terminal buildings at T5, so the walk from the airbridge to passport control could take 10 or 12 minutes. There may or may not be a queue - you could wait 10 minutes but you might find that immigration will take 30 minutes.
For British and European passengers, the “service level agreement” that Heathrow airport has with UK border force is for almost everyone –95 per cent of passengers – to be through passport control in 25 minutes. For other nationalities, the time is 45 minutes.
Departures. Fast Track for departing flights is available to first and business class passengers in addition to top tier members of airline frequent flier programmes. Fast Track also welcomes American Express Centurion card holders.
Terminal 5, which opened on March 27, 2008, was designed by Rogers, Stirk, Harbour & Partners. It was built at a cost of £4.3 billion. It is exclusively used by British Airways and Iberia and has the capacity to handle more than 30 million customers a year.
Everyone who boards an aircraft at Heathrow has to be security screened to UK government standards. Even if you've already been through security checks at another airport, we're obliged to screen you again before you fly from Heathrow.