London Heathrow Airport or
Heathrow is a major international airport serving
London,
England,
United Kingdom. Located in the
London Borough of Hillingdon, in West London, Heathrow is the
busiest airport in the United Kingdom and the
third busiest airport in the world in terms of total passenger traffic, handling
more international passengers than any other airport around the globe.
It is also the
busiest airport in the EU by passenger traffic and the third busiest in Europe given the number of
traffic movements, with a figure surpassed only by
Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport and
Frankfurt Airport.
Heathrow is London's main airport, having replaced
RAF Northolt and the earlier and better-known
Croydon Airport, and together with
Gatwick,
Southend,
Stansted,
Luton and
London City, London is the
busiest city airport system in the world by passenger traffic; and second only to
New York City in terms of traffic movements. The airport sustains 76,600 jobs directly and around 116,000 indirectly in the immediate area,
and this, together with the large number of global corporations with offices close to the airport, makes Heathrow a modern
aerotropolis which contributes an estimated 2.7% to London's total
GVA.