Operational Update - 13 May 2021

13 May 2021

The following provides an update on the number of flight movements we expect to see at Heathrow in May along with our runway operations plans.

We apologise for the delay in publishing this update. We wanted to provide as accurate a forecast as possible following the Government’s travel update last week - detailing the new traffic light system in which 12 countries have been placed on the ‘green list’ when international travel restrictions are lifted from 17 May.

Flight movements

Last month we outlined how we expected to see between 260-440 flight movements during April, amid continued uncertainty over when travel restrictions would be lifted. The lowest daily number of flights in the month was 292 (13 April) and the highest was 404 (11 April), well within our predicted range.

We are expecting flight numbers in May to be between 280-550 flight movements a day, with a wide range due to the easing of lockdown rules and the approach of half term at the end of the month.

Runway operations

As mentioned in previous updates, on 1 January 2021 we consolidated our operations and returned to single runway operations. At present we are not able to predict how long we will need to operate in this way, but we will continue to review this situation, particularly when the traffic light system is reviewed again by Government in June. We will keep you updated to confirm when we expect to operate from both runways again.