Heathrow Airport is the largest and busiest airport in the United Kingdom.
It is the world's third busiest airport for passenger traffic and it handles the most international passenger traffic in the world. It has two parallel runways running east to west and traffic patterns for arrivals and departures are very complex. These charts are just a few of the multitude of charts that are required to allow a safe and expeditious flow of traffic in one of the busiest sections of airspace in the world. All aircrew are expected to be familiar with the procedures as published and aircraft are required to carry copies of these charts to cover all eventualities.

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London Heathrow Charts

The complete set of charts can be viewed at the
National Air Traffic Aeronautical Information website

London Heathrow Communications

Although Heathrow has a modern Air Traffic Control Tower, controllers at Heathrow only deal with aircraft on Final Approach, on the ground and during departure. All Radar services are provided by the London Terminal Control Centre (LTCC) at Swanwick near Southampton.

Controllers in the terminal control room handle traffic below 24,500 feet flying to or from London’s airports in what is known as the London Terminal Control Area. This area, which is one of the busiest in Europe, extends south and east towards the coast, west towards Bristol and north to near Birmingham. Controllers provide an approach service to aircraft inbound to Heathrow, Gatwick and ted ensuring aircraft descend in a safe and orderly stream ready to land. At busy times, aircraft are directed to holding stacks. Here they descend, under the controller’s guidance, before being sequenced and released for their final approach. Aircraft flying from London’s airports are handed over to terminal control shortly after take-off. The controllers then guide the aircraft into the airways where they are passed on to staff in the area control operations room at Swanwick.