Heathrow airport code: LHR

Both codes, and every position and runway figure on this page, come from OurAirports' open data, which its publishers release into the public domain and which is the set behind the airport code lookup. It lists London Heathrow Airport at 51.4707° N, 0.4599° W, 83 ft (25 m) above sea level.

Which code goes where

The letters L, H and R all appear in London Heathrow. EGLL is the four-letter code. What each system is for, in IATA's and the FAA's own words, is on what an airport code is, so this page sticks to Heathrow.

The four letters follow a pattern you can check in the data. Of the 95 UK airports in the lookup that have both an IATA and an ICAO code, 95 have an ICAO code beginning EG, and EGLL is one of them.

The two runways behind the code

OurAirports records two runways at Heathrow, both asphalt, lit and 164 ft (50 m) wide.

Each pair of numbers is one strip seen from its two ends. What the numbers mean is in what a runway is, and which end aircraft use on a given day decides where plane spotting at Heathrow is worth the walk.

LHR is one of 8 airports with London in the name

The lookup has 8 airports with London in their name, and each has its own pair of codes. The distances are straight lines from Heathrow, worked out from the coordinates in the data, so they're not road or flight distances.

So LHR and LGW aren't the same airport. LGW is London Gatwick Airport, ICAO EGKK, 40.6 km from Heathrow in a straight line.

LHR on a print

The airport code print is set from this same data. Open it with LHR filled in and it starts from three lines: LHR, then LONDON HEATHROW · UNITED KINGDOM, then 51.4707° N, 0.4599° W. You can change any line before you order.

For any other airport, the lookup takes either code or a place name, and Manchester and Edinburgh have pages of their own. If the print is for someone who watches aircraft, gifts for plane spotters has the rest of the range, and aviation gifts covers every recipient.