London Heathrow Airport (LHR) Location.

Heathrow is located approximately 15 miles (that is about 24km) west of central London- Westminister (Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, London Eye, Victoria Station) and is definitely one of the world's busiest international airports, and so called travel hubs.

Facilities at the airport.

Facilities at the airport include bureaux de change, ATMs, airport information, hotel reservation and travel information desks, Post Offices in Terminal 2 and Terminal 4, lost luggage, Internet access, showers, telephones and fax machines, shops, duty-free outlets, restaurants, cafes, bars and information centres. Car hire is available in all five terminals, from major rent-a-car companies.The Business Centre Heathrow is located in the Queen's Building, between terminals one and two. Open Monday to Friday 0730 to 1900, it offers 20 meeting rooms and a conference suite, as well as a communications centre with computers with Internet access, faxes, photocopiers, audiovisual equipment and even shower rooms. Heathrow operates 24h/7 days a week, 365 days a year, .

How big is the airport?

It is third world bussiest airport affter Atlanta- ATL and Chicago O'Hare ORD in international passengers. LHR handles over 67 million passengers every year (for comparison Los Angeles- LAX 62 million in 2007). There are around 90 airlines operating from Heathrow just to mension biggest ones: British Airways/ BA, BMI, Virgin Atlantic, American Airlines, United Airlines, Air Canada. Every year there are over 470 thusands aircraft take offs and landings to 180 destinations.
It has two runways both over 3.5km long (over 2 miles). There are 5 terminals with over 600 check in desks and over 30 thousand parking spaces.

Transport to the city:

The Heathrow Express (tel: 0845 600 1515) operates from terminals one, two, three and five with trains running every 15 minutes. Passengers from terminal four need to take the free transfer service to Heathrow Central and change. You can buy tickets from the Heathrow Express desks or self-service ticket kiosks located at the station; tickets are also available for purchase on the train, for a premium, or online, with a 10% discount.A cheaper, but longer option is to take the Heathrow Connect rail service (tel: 0845 678 6975; website: www.heathrowconnect.com) to Paddington.

The airport is also on the London Underground Piccadilly line (tel: (020) 7222 1234; website: www.tfl.gov.uk).

There is also a Central Bus Station at Heathrow, where the main bus service to central London is operated by National Express (tel: 0871 781 8181; website: www.nationalexpress.com). At night, the N9 night bus service goes to central London every 30 minutes (journey time - 50 minutes).

The Airport Travel Line (tel: 0870 574 7777) provides coach transport information. The Travel
Line (tel: 0871 200 2233) can provide information on all public transport to and from London.

Taxi

Readily available and cost from around £50-80 for a journey to the city centre (depending on traffic conditions and time of day) To book a taxi online click here: Quick Quote and Booking

London Buses

run a service called the "Airbus", there are three routes, all of which head roughly for the Centre of London. One heads for Victoria station wh ich is in South Central London, another heads straight through the middle to Liverpool Street Station, the other heads slightly North of the Centre to Euston railway station. All buses leave from a bus station in the centre of the Heathrow complex, which is directly above the Underground station. There is reasonable room for lugage. Catching an Airbus into the Centre and then flaging a Taxi (anyone with it's light on is for hire) to take you to a specific place is a good way of reducing the cost of getting with large baggage into Central London.

Underground/ SUBWAY:

The Piccadilly line runs from stations under the airport
terminals into Central London. It takes about 1 hour to get to Central London at high cost. Because of the Zone based charging this ticket is also valid to almost all London Underground stations. It
does not have very good facilities for bagage and gets crow ded during the rush hours. You should get a seat as Heathrow is the end of the line, BUT you and your bags will get trampled on during the rush hours. The Piccadilly line serves (amongst others) Acton, Hammersmith, South Kensington, Knightsbridge (for Harrods!), Green Park, Piccadilly Circus, Holborn and Kings Cross.

Trains/ Railway

No trains operate directly from the airport there is a saervice called Rail-air service and it is operating to Train Stations: Feltham, Reading, Woking and Watford Junction.