Forum Topic

Why have planes stopped landing at Heathrow?

It seems that all planes have stopped landing at Heathrow this morning and gone into holding patterns. Does anyone know why?

James Petri ● 3d13 Comments

That’s right under normal circumstance but until October they won’t use the northern runway during the night until 07:00.

Steve Taylor ● 2d

The early morning is very busy, so i take it that when one runway is taken out for a period of time, you revert to both runways rather than stacking too many planes in

Julian Pavey ● 2d

That means that until October 2026 the southern runway will take more traffic because the northern runway is closed for resurfacing throughout the night until 7am. So the northern runway will only accept flights after 07:00.

Steve Taylor ● 2d

According to https://www.heathrow.com/company/local-community/noise/operations/runway-alternationHeathrow claim :"Although not described as TEAM, we are also able to use both runways for arrivals between 06:00 - 07:00 without being limited to a set number because this hour is the busiest time of day for arrivals into Heathrow."

Tim Henderson ● 2d

That i cant explain but after the inspection in which a gap came for both runways they did use both runways after

Julian Pavey ● 2d

Only one runway is in operation at night until 0600.

Tim Henderson ● 2d

Thank you all, and thank you Julian for the most likely explanation.Except that if there was a runway inspection why did they close the other runway too?

James Petri ● 2d

From what I could see, they were landing on 27R and 27L and departing on 27L.
The time gap in question,27L, had a Runway inspection, and the planes were kept in the holding stack until 27L was given the all clear, and they started putting planes back in for final approach on both 27L and 27R.

Julian Pavey ● 2d

Could it just be that after 0542 all the arriving planes were arriving before their time and had not allocated night quota movements and therefore had to wait in the stacks until they could be released to land after 0600 ?

Tim Henderson ● 2d

Horse's mouth here ->https://www.heathrow.com/company/local-community/noise/operations/runway-alternationhttps://www.heathrow.com/company/local-community/noise/operations/easterly-alternation

Paul James ● 2d

They do now seem to be operating traditionally, using the northern runway at present. Presumably there will be a switch to the south at 15.00.

Bruce Hammal ● 2d

Have they started "eastern alternation"?This may be the new normal, god help us.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cew84pdg2dgo

Bruce Hammal ● 2d

Planes coming in now after a gap in excess of 18 minutes. Using both runways alternately.

James Petri ● 3d