London has several airports. In this blog post I explain what are the London airports and what are their differences and hot to get from airport to the city. I present the airports in order of importance.
London Heathrow (LHR) - The main airport of London
London Heathrow is the busiest airport in the UK and actually also whole Europe. Heathrow has five terminals and two parallel runways. Heathrow lies on the west side of London. How to get to the London center from Heathrow? The answer is simple, underground. London underground stops at Heathrow and it's cheaper and sometimes also faster than taxi. Taxis in London are prices so high that they are legalized robbery.
London Gatwick (LGW) - The second airport in London
London Gatwick is the second busiest airport in the London metropolitan region, and is the busiest single runway airport in the world. British Airways and Flybe use Gatwick for selected flights and some low cost carriers also fly to Gatwick. Gatwick is not connected to London metro as Heathrow but there is train connection from the airport to the London center.
London City Airport - LCY
In theory London City is nice airport because it's closest to the city. However the size of the airport is a slight problem. The one and only runway is so short that it makes longhaul flights difficult. However British Airways manages somehow to fly Airbus A318 flights between London City Airport and New York JFK.
London Stansted (STN) - Low cost carrier airport
London Stansted Airport actually is located in Essex and it's the major airport for low fares airline Ryanair. Basically London Stansted exists only for Ryanair. They fly majority of flights from and to Stansted. There are bus and train connections between London and Stansted Airport.
London Luton (LTN) - Secondary low cost carrier airport
If Stansted was for Ryanair then we can say that Luton is for other low fare airlines like Easyjet and Wizzair.
London Southend (SEN) - One more airport for low fare carriers
Because low fare carriers compete heavily in Europe they all seem to need their own airports and therefore London needs one more airport.
