Operational update - 29 June 2021

29 June 2021

The following provides an update on our plans for our runway operations and the number of flight movements we expect to see at Heathrow in July.

Runway operations

In our previous operational update on 9 June we mentioned that we were not able to predict how long we would need to continue in single runway operations, but we would continue to review the situation and keep you updated.

We can now confirm that we will return to dual runway operations from Monday 5 July at 06:00, alternating at 15:00 as usual when we are on westerly operations to provide local communities with respite. This means that next week we will be landing on the northern runway (27R) until 15:00 and then we’ll switch to the southern runway (27L) if we are on westerly operations. The full alternation pattern can be found here.

We are returning to using both runways to accommodate planned airfield infrastructure repair works starting in July. This will ensure that we have both a safe and efficient operation whilst providing respite to our local communities.

Flight movements

Earlier this month we outlined how we expected to see between 370-560 flight movements during June, with continued daily variation and an expected increase towards the end of the month. The lowest daily number of flights in the month so far is 376 (8 June) and the highest is 528 (27 June), well within our predicted range. Our forecast for July ranges between 400-860 flight movements a day, depending on what action the government takes on 19 July.