Airports of London
The metropolitan area of London, United Kingdom is served by six international airports and several smaller airports. Together, they make the busiest airport system in the world by passenger numbers and the second busiest by aircraft movements. In 2011, the six airports handled a total of 133,709,327 passengers. The London airports handle 60% of all the United Kingdom's air traffic. The airports serve a total of 14 domestic destinations and 396 international destinations.
Located in the London Borough of Newham, City Airport is situated in London's Docklands, and is the closest to central London, which limits its size - the airport has a single runway, which is very short. As a result, no large aircraft are permitted to use the airport, which initially prevented all long-haul flights. However, since 2011, British Airways has operated a flight to New York JFK, via Shannon, using an Airbus A318, which is currently the largest aircraft handled at the airport.
Located only four miles from Canary Wharf, London City Airport is often used by business travellers, with many flights serving destinations across the UK and northern Europe. The airport cannot be expanded due to the docks on either side. It is also the only airport serving London which does not operate at night.
Until the extension of the Docklands Light Railway in 2006, City Airport had poor public transport connections to London.
Located in the London Borough of Hillingdon, Heathrow is by far the largest of London's airports, and considered the international gateway into the United Kingdom. Heathrow has five terminals and two parallel runways. Due to the location in London's western suburbs, Heathrow has been unable to expand (especially since the Cameron ministry scrapped the proposals for a third runway on 12 May 2010), and as a result consistently runs at 99% capacity. This has led to Heathrow being one of the worst rated airports in the world, with lengthy border control queues being a recent problem. The airport is connected to Great Britain's motorway network via the M4 and M25 motorways.
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