Heathrow Runways?

[neenaw]

I've recently moved to Stanwell, close to Heathrow Airport and was wondering about the runways!

It seems that planes take off in both directions from the southern runway but only land from the East.

Is there any reason for this?

[Eric Mc]

No - because they take off and land from both. There is a switch around at 3.00 pm to give the residents under the two take off paths a break.

Edited by Eric Mc on Wednesday 13th January 17:16

[bumblebee]

On easterlies we land on the northern runway (09L) 99% of the time. Easterly departures are off 09R. With the recent bad weather there have been a few occasions where single runway ops have been necessary
on Easterlies, (for snow clearance) which is not usual.
As Eric has said, in westerlies we alternate the departure and arrival runways
daily at 3pm.

Edited by bumblebee on Wednesday 13th January 17:27

[aeropilot]

Easterly departures using 09L (north runway) are restricted because of noise in relation to the hotels and what-not alonside the A4, well that's what I was told when I worked at Heathrow.

[neenaw]

Thanks for that, I just thought that it seemed quite strange that I'd never seen anything landing from the western end of the southern runway, at least not while I've been here!

[zac510]

bumblebee said:

On easterlies we land on the northern runway (09L) 99% of the time. Easterly departures are off 09R. With the recent bad weather there have been a few occasions where single runway ops have been necessary
on Easterlies, (for snow clearance) which is not usual.
As Eric has said, in westerlies we alternate the departure and arrival runways
daily at 3pm.

Edited by bumblebee on Wednesday 13th January 17:27

Can you elaborate a bit more on the landing schedules?

I live under I think the path of the Southern runway but I think we get some traffic from the southern holding area too.

I'm just trying to work out when I can expect planes and when not!

[john_p]

Heathrow has for a long time been subject to the "Cranford Agreement"

The agreement stated that when on easterlies (aircraft taking off over London), aircraft will only take off from the southern runway, except in exceptional circumstances. This means that, mostly, aircraft will be landing on the northern runway.

Westerlies were not affected by this, and aircraft will typically swap takeoff/landing runways at 3pm each day.

The Cranford agreement is now ended so aircraft will soon be using both runways on Easterlies, once Heathrow has finished taxiway works. I suspect aircraft will swap landing/takeoff runways at 3pm when they do.

[touching cloth]

Also worth mentioning that LHR runs Westerly preference so more often than not flights take off away from London with approaching flight coming in over London. Think it works out as around 75% of days with the other 25% flights coming in from the West and thus landing and takeoffs being easterly.

As someone under an approach path for the North runway when on Easterlies, I am quite looking forward to the end of the Cranford agreement.

[zac510]

I never notice the take offs, just the landings.

[RDE]

zac510 said:

bumblebee said:

On easterlies we land on the northern runway (09L) 99% of the time. Easterly departures are off 09R. With the recent bad weather there have been a few occasions where single runway ops have been necessary
on Easterlies, (for snow clearance) which is not usual.
As Eric has said, in westerlies we alternate the departure and arrival runways
daily at 3pm.

Edited by bumblebee on Wednesday 13th January 17:27

Can you elaborate a bit more on the landing schedules?

I live under I think the path of the Southern runway but I think we get some traffic from the southern holding area too.

I'm just trying to work out when I can expect planes and when not!

I believe the departure runway may occasionally be used for arrivals in busy periods. For some reason the figure of no more than 6 per hour is in my head, but that might be nonsense.

[DHA]

john_p said:

The Cranford agreement is now ended so aircraft will soon be using both runways on Easterlies, once Heathrow has finished taxiway works. I suspect aircraft will swap landing/takeoff runways at 3pm when they do.

Hasn't ended per say, all that has been mooted is that there only seems to be verbal reference to it rather than anything legally recorded about such agreement. An easterly alternation will be particularly difficult, the southern runway (09R in this instance) does not have sufficient rapid exit turn-offs which result in aircraft having to slow down to a greater extent prior to leaving the runway, and the holding area for 09L is restricted to particular aircraft types in certain areas and also affects the T5 taxi system to a greater extent than 09R for departure does.

[DHA]

RDE said:

I believe the departure runway may occasionally be used for arrivals in busy periods. For some reason the figure of no more than 6 per hour is in my head, but that might be nonsense.

Can be used in busy periods for landing yes, the 6 per hour is more to allow the "extra" arrivals to be better spaced out so the departures don't get too much delay rather than being a specific limit.