Travelling to London by Air - Information, Transport

Travelling to London by Air

London is served by three major airports and the search for more space to permit expansion is never ending. In 1946 Heathrow, now the world's busiest international airport, was a tented village in post-war, austerity-ridden England, with around 9000 flights a year.

Now, over 60 million passengers a year use Heathrow. Nor is it only people who travel through what is now regarded as the hub of the aviation world. Heathrow is also the world's second busiest cargo handler. Over the years a good transport network has been established between Heathrow and central London, as well as flight links with many provincial airports in the UK.

Because of the rapidly expanding pressure on Heathrow another London air terminal was established at Gatwick, to the south, in 1958. This now deals with a section of the charter market as well as providing an operating base for up and coming airlines before they graduate to, say, Heathrow. Gatwick currently handles in excess of 15m passengers and growth continues fast.

Since 1986, after proposals had been rejected for a completely new airport at Maplin Sands on the Essex coast, the British Airports Authority has invested over £500m in a state of the art modern airport at Stansted, north-west of London. So quickly has Stansted grown that it is already making an operating profit, handling over 8m passengers a year and 167,943 metric tons of cargo.

Security at all Airports is under constant review in the light of international events. From time to time the armed services collaborate with the security forces to stage an exercise at Heathrow, presenting opportunities to up-date procedures both there and at other airports.

All three Airports have good road and rail links to central London and most major cities in UK. Heathrow, for instance, is 15 minutes by fast rail link to Paddington.