Rail engineering works: 15 & 16 November
Approximately every 10 years, full-length resurfacing works take place on each of Heathrow’s runways. The last time this was carried out was in 2013.
Because Heathrow is so busy, this work needs to take place at night. That will mean changes to our runway alternation pattern, particularly for night-time flights. Most aircraft flying after 10:30pm and before 6am will use a single runway while the resurfacing works take place overnight on the other runway.
The video below shows the work that takes place at night while the runway is closed, to allow resurfacing to be carried out. This video features the teams and equipment that were involved when we previously resurfaced the runways in 2013.
Runway alternation helps us manage aircraft noise and allows residents living under flight paths to plan ahead with predictable periods of relief. For more information on how alternation works at Heathrow, visit our dedicated runway alternation page.
We have finished resurfacing the southern runway and are now working on the northern runway. Work is expected to be complete by October 2026.
Disruption to night-time alternation for this period of time is not ideal, but it is unavoidable. Some of our neighbours are likely to experience more noise than usual, or at different times than they might expect. The impact on communities is something we very much considered in our planning, but we recognise this may still be disruptive to our local residents.
We will continue to update this page with more information as the works progress, including more clarity around dates and expected changes to our published runway alternation schedule. During the works we will also provide daily up-to-date information on our dedicated X channel (follow us @HeathrowRunways).
We expect to operate our runways with the following pattern during the period of resurfacing:
For five nights a week (from Sunday evening to Friday morning), all flights will use a single runway between approximately 10:30pm and 6am. The runway currently being used is the southern runway.
For two nights a week (from Friday evening to Sunday morning), runway alternation will operate as normal, following the published daytime and night-time alternation schedules.
Most daytime flights are not affected.
Download our runway alternation schedule here.
Since Heathrow has relatively few night flights, the changes won't affect many aircraft – mostly arrivals after 4.30am. There will be no additional night flights.
When works take place on the northern runway at night, if you live under the flight path for the southern runway, you'll experience more night-time aircraft noise than usual.
If you live under the flight path for the northern runway, you'll experience less.
Whenever works take place on the southern runway, this is reversed.
If you would like to know more, please call us on 0800 344844 or email:
