London Heathrow Airport Cam

Checking which runway is in use before you set off for Myrtle Avenue can save a wasted trip, and the Heathrow live cam answers it in real time. The stream follows arrivals and departures at London Heathrow Airport (LHR, ICAO code EGLL), 14 miles (23 km) west of central London in the borough of Hillingdon, England, where two parallel east-west runways handled just under 480,000 flights in 2025. Of the London live cams on the site, this London Heathrow Airport cam is the one built for plane spotting: wide-bodies on short final, the puff of tire smoke at touchdown and departures climbing away from the other runway.

Heathrow runways 27L, 27R, 09L and 09R and the 3 p.m. switch

Heathrow has only two runways, and both are long. The northern one, 09L/27R, measures 3,902 m (12,802 ft); the southern one, 09R/27L, measures 3,660 m (12,008 ft). Which number applies depends on the wind: with a westerly, aircraft land and take off toward the west on 27L and 27R; with an easterly, they use 09L and 09R.

On westerly days the airport runs runway alternation. From 6 a.m. one runway takes the landings and the other the departures, at 3 p.m. they swap, and the following week the pattern flips so the communities under each approach get a break. Heathrow publishes the full 2026 landing schedule in advance, which is the simplest way to know which runway the Heathrow webcam will show landings on today.

With an east wind there is no 3 p.m. swap. The Cranford Agreement long kept departures off the northern runway in that direction, and although the agreement has ended, Heathrow says works on the airfield are still needed before easterly alternation can begin.

Nights are quiet by rule. A night quota period runs from 11:30 p.m. to 6 a.m., and airlines have agreed not to schedule arrivals before 4:30 a.m., so the first wave of overnight long-haul flights shows up on the Heathrow airport live stream around then.

Reading the London Heathrow Airport webcam

Two clues tell you what you are watching. If aircraft landing on one runway give way to departures on it at 3 p.m., the airport is on westerly operations and alternating; if nothing changes all afternoon, the wind is probably from the east. The second clue is the livery: British Airways, Heathrow’s largest airline, works mainly out of Terminal 5, the building between the runways at the western end, which opened in 2008.

Terminals 2 (opened in 2014) and 3 share the central area, and Terminal 4 sits on the south side. Terminal 1 closed in 2015, so any guide that still lists five terminals is out of date. If you like comparing airfields, our airport live cams also cover São Paulo Guarulhos and Watertown, New York.

Heathrow plane spotting locations near the runways

The Heathrow live cam is the easy option, but these are the places spotters actually stand:

• Myrtle Avenue, Hatton. The green at the end of the road sits directly under the approach to 27L, so on westerly days landings pass low overhead. In January 2008 British Airways flight 38, a Boeing 777, crash-landed just short of that runway after passing over the street and the A30.
• Newall Road viewing stand. A free covered stand on the north side, next to the Heathrow Academy, facing 27R/09L arrivals, departures and taxiing traffic.
• Eastern Perimeter Road. The spot for 09L arrivals on easterly mornings, with few facilities nearby.
• Renaissance hotel on Bath Road. Rooms on the airfield side look over 27R, for spotters who want to stay overnight.

Myrtle Avenue is a short walk from Hatton Cross, a stop on the Piccadilly line, which also runs into Terminals 2 and 3, Terminal 4 and Terminal 5. For the trains themselves, the London Underground cam follows commuters at Tube stations.

What flies past the Heathrow airport webcam

Heathrow handled a record 84.5 million passengers in 2025, up from 83.9 million in 2024, and its busiest day was August 1, with about 270,000 travelers. The busiest international route was New York JFK, with roughly 3.2 million passengers, ahead of Dubai and Doha. If you want to see the other end of that trip, the New York webcam looks across the East River at Lower Manhattan.

The European Union is still the largest market, at 28.4 million passengers, followed by North America at 20.6 million, and the Middle East and Asia-Pacific both grew in 2025. That mix shows on the feed: European short-haul flights most of the day, with long-haul jets to and from North America and the Gulf in between.

Before you head out, check two things. First, the expansion timeline: Heathrow now expects its third runway to open closer to 2039 than to 2035, with planning permission targeted for 2029. Second, the route in: the Heathrow Express reaches Paddington in about 15 minutes and the Elizabeth line reaches central London in about 35. And if it is past 11:30 p.m. in London and the Heathrow live cam has gone quiet, our live webcams in other time zones are still busy.