Heathrow Airport Guide

This Heathrow Airport guide will help you through the transportation hustle of locating the necessary facilities around the airport. Heathrow airport is the largest airport in England as is evidenced by the fact that more than 80 airlines fly from this airport to more than 180 locations around the world. If recent statistics are something to go by, this airport is the busiest with approximately 75 million passengers and 1.4 million tonnes of cargo in a year. All this is made possible by the size advantage that allows the airport to have four operating terminals and two runways. The airport code for Heathrow airport is LHR and it is 24 kilometers away from London. The airport has a rich supply of facilities for both business and leisure travelers. These include convenient stores at the terminals, cash machines, restaurants, duty-free stores, bureau de change as well as transport and accommodation facilities.

The Terminals

Heathrow airport has four terminals with codes TW6 1EW, TW6 1QG, TW6 3XA, and TW6 2GA respectively. Terminal 2, which is also referred to as The Queen’s Terminal operates a total of 29 airlines and carries more than 16 million domestic and international passengers on an annual basis. The terminal 2 check-in is located on level 5 whereas arrival and departure flights are found on levels 1 and 5 respectively. Terminal 3 is used by 18 airlines and serves approximately 17.7 million passengers. It is primarily meant for long-haul flights. This terminal’s flight arrivals and check-ins are located on the ground floor whereas departures are on the first floor.

Terminal 4 is used by 34 airlines with the major ones being Air France, Etihad, and KLM. It handles an approximate of 9.5 million long-haul and European passengers annually. The newest of these terminals, terminal 5, is used exclusively by British Airways and Iberia and operates at least 200,000 annual flights of 31.9 million passengers. Each of these terminals supports both manual and self-service check-ins whereby the latter occurs either online or from the kiosks available at the airport. It goes without saying that one should confirm the terminal in which they are supposed to check-in and make a point of arriving early in advance.

Accommodation facilities at the Heathrow Airport

Whether you are on a business trip or a family gate away with your family, Heathrow Airport has got you covered with the onsite and offsite hotels. Sofitel Luxury Hotel is the onsite accommodation on terminal 5 and the Hilton is the one at Terminal 4. There is a great variety of off-site hotels for travelers to choose from which include the likes of Holiday Inn, Park Inn by Radisson, Marriott, and Radisson Blu among others. The hotels around Heathrow Airport are suitable for the business needs of business travelers. They feature facilities such as the high-speed wireless internet, fax machines, and conference rooms. It is worth noting that most of the offsite hotels are easily accessible on foot and those that are a bit farther offer airport shuttle services for their customers.

Transport and Parking facilities at Heathrow Airport

Heathrow Airport provides passengers with a wide range of transport facilities ranging from trains, taxis, coaches and buses, and car hire services. Those who have their cars can access car parking options at heathrow airport. The best Heathrow airport parking services providers available online. The National Express coach service operates buses and coaches with a bus station located between terminals 2 and 3 and opens 24 hours. This is the only service that connects Heathrow to other airports. RailAir is another transport service provider at Heathrow that operates coaches between Reading Station and Heathrow Airport. One can choose to travel by Hotel Transfers provides by respective hotels. Alternatively, Heathrow Express can come in handy for a traveler going to central London from the airport.