London Heathrow Airport is a huge airport, even in international terms. It is the UK’s largest and busiest airport, and the third busiest in the world (behind Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta and Beijing Capital). Its busyness is attributed to its location – it is only 14 miles from London and has excellent public transport links from the airport to the capital. Heathrow is also used as hub airport for international passengers. For example, people from the US bound for Europe might change at Heathrow. Something that builds on top of its popularity is the amazingly wide variety of airlines operating from here, along with a huge choice of destinations to fly to. Almost every single airline in the world offers services at Heathrow. The biggest operator here is British Airways offering a great many routes internationally. The major downside to Heathrow however is the lack of budget airlines operating here – Ryanair, one of the UK’s biggest budget airlines, doesn’t offer a single destination here, unlike many of Heathrow’s other rivals.

If you are travelling to or from Heathrow you should build a little extra time into your plan to allow for delays as with it being such a busy airport there can be difficulties with queues. This is a problem even with their 4 terminals – plans are underway to build a 6th terminal and extra runway but it has met heavy opposition with people under the flight paths. Excellent bus and train services into London and other parts of the country are available a few times an hour to help you get along with your journey.