Arriving in London — Heathrow & Gatwick

London is served by two major international airports. Most long-haul visitors arrive at Heathrow; a significant number — particularly those on budget and charter carriers — arrive at Gatwick. This page covers both in full, so you know exactly what to expect from the moment your wheels touch down.

Heathrow is the fifth busiest airport in the world. On a busy day, over 230,000 passengers pass through it. Some of them — more than you might expect — arrive unprepared for what the airport asks of them, and they pay for it in lost time, unnecessary expense, and a first hour in the United Kingdom that sets the wrong tone for everything that follows.

This page exists so that this is not you.

Before You Land — The UK ETA

If you are a citizen of the United States, Canada, Australia, or most other countries that previously enjoyed visa-free entry to the UK, the rules changed in 2024. You now need an Electronic Travel Authorisation — an ETA — before you board your flight. It is not a visa. It is an online pre-clearance that costs £10, takes a few minutes to apply for, and is linked electronically to your passport. You do not print it or carry it. The airline checks it when you check in.

What you must not do is assume that because you have visited the UK before without any formality, you can still do so now. If you board without an ETA, you will be denied boarding, or turned around on arrival. Apply at the official UK government website — not through any third-party service that charges more for exactly the same application. Do it the moment you book your flights. Do not leave it to the week before you travel.

Citizens of Ireland and British nationals do not need an ETA.

The Size of Heathrow

Heathrow has five terminals, and this is the first thing to get right. Terminals 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 are not all connected. Terminal 5 is where British Airways and Iberia operate exclusively, and it sits some distance from the others. Terminal 4 is also separated and requires a dedicated rail connection. If you are connecting between flights at Heathrow and your terminals are not adjacent, add at least 90 minutes to your connection time. Heathrow will eat a 45-minute connection alive and not apologise for it.

When you look up your arriving flight, confirm your terminal before you travel. The terminal determines which Tube station you arrive at, which exit your taxi or pickup will use, and how long it will take to walk from the gate to the exit. In Terminal 5, after a long-haul flight, the walk from gate to passport control can feel longer than the flight itself. It is not — but bring comfortable shoes and don't be in a hurry.

Passport Control

UK passport control is divided into two streams: UK and Irish citizens, and everyone else. If you hold a biometric passport from a country eligible for the e-gates — which includes the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, and most EU nations — you may be able to use the automated e-gates rather than joining the queue for a manned desk. The e-gates scan your face and your chip. They are fast when they work and occasionally temperamental when they don't. If the gate rejects you, join the queue for a border officer — it happens to everyone occasionally and is not a cause for alarm.

Border officers at Heathrow are professional and matter-of-fact. Answer their questions directly and honestly. They will typically ask the purpose of your visit, where you are staying, and how long you intend to remain. Have your accommodation address to hand — not just the city, the actual address. If you are staying in multiple places, know your first address. "I haven't booked yet" is an answer that will slow things down considerably.

Wait times at passport control vary enormously. Early morning arrivals from North America and the Middle East can produce queues of an hour or more if multiple long-haul flights land together. There is nothing to be done about this except to be patient, stay hydrated, and not make yourself anxious about onward connections you have planned too tightly.

Customs

After collecting your bags, you will pass through customs via one of two channels: green (nothing to declare) or red (goods to declare). Most tourists take the green channel without incident. Know the limits before you travel: you can bring in up to 200 cigarettes, 18 litres of still wine, four litres of spirits, and goods worth up to £390 purchased outside the UK. Anything above those limits should go through the red channel. Customs officers do conduct random checks in the green channel. The consequences of being stopped with undeclared goods significantly above the limit are not worth the risk.

Your First Decisions After Arrivals at Heathrow

The Arrivals hall at Heathrow is the moment when several things compete for your attention simultaneously: people holding signs, currency exchange desks, a taxi rank, and the exit to the Tube. Make your decisions before you get there, not while you are jet-lagged and disoriented in the middle of the hall.

Money. Do not change currency at the airport. The exchange desks in Arrivals — Travelex is the main operator — offer rates that range from poor to genuinely bad. The gap between what they offer and the real rate is their profit, and it is substantial. If you need sterling immediately, use a cashpoint inside the terminal before you exit arrivals. Better still, use a bank card with no foreign transaction fees — Wise, Revolut, Monzo, Charles Schwab, and several others offer excellent rates with no markup. Most of London operates contactlessly and you may need very little cash at all.

SIM card. If you want a UK SIM, the airport sells them from vending machines and a WHSmith. EE, Vodafone, and O2 all have good coverage. However, you will almost certainly get a better deal buying a SIM online before you travel and activating it on arrival, or using an eSIM downloaded to your phone before departure. Airalo is a well-regarded eSIM provider. Check whether your existing phone plan includes UK data roaming at a reasonable rate — many American and Australian plans now do.

Getting into the city. You have three real options, each suited to a different situation.

The Elizabeth line is the viable answer for almost everyone travelling to central London. It runs from all Heathrow terminals directly into the heart of the city — Paddington, Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon, Liverpool Street — in around 50 minutes, for a fare of approximately £12 with a contactless card. The trains are modern, spacious, and air-conditioned. They run every 20 minutes. It is fast, cheap, reliable, and, crucially, has room for luggage in a way the older Piccadilly line does not. The Piccadilly line also connects Heathrow to central London, runs every 5 minutes, takes around an hour, and costs much less. However, trade-off is that the carriages are narrow, get crowded and standing with large bags through the rush-hour is not the welcome to London you deserve.

If you miss an Elizabeth Line train, instead of waiting for the next one, catching the next Piccadilly Line train will get you to central London at the same time as the next Elizabeth Line train.

The Heathrow Express is a dedicated rail service to Paddington in 15 minutes. It is fast, uncrowded, comfortable and expensive compared to the other train options. It costs up to £37 for a single (one-way) ticket. Unless someone else is paying, or you are cutting a connection very fine, the Elizabeth line does the same job at a third of the price and the difference in journey time is rarely worth it.

A taxi — black cab or pre-booked minicab — makes sense if you have significant luggage, are travelling as a group that splits the cost, or are going somewhere the Elizabeth Line or Tube does not serve directly. A black cab from Heathrow to central London will cost £55 to £85 depending on traffic and destination. Traffic on the M4 corridor into London can be severe at peak times. A taxi during the morning rush hour from Heathrow can take well over an hour and cost significantly more than the meter started out suggesting. Follow the overhead signs that lead to the area outside the terminal you are at.

If You Are Connecting Onwards from Heathrow

If Heathrow is a connection rather than a destination, you should already know your terminal situation. In terms of practicalities Heathrow is 3 terminals in one airport. If your connection is tight and you are arriving from outside the EU or UK, you will need to pass through passport control, collect bags, clear customs, re-check bags, and pass through security again unless you are airside on a protected through-connection. You might need to get yourself to another terminal on the other side of Heathrow. If in doubt, ask your airline or travel agent when you book. Heathrow connections require more time than most airports of equivalent size, because of the terminal separation and the volume of passengers.

The minimum recommended connection time at Heathrow is 90 minutes for domestic and short-haul, and two hours for long-haul. In practice, anything under two hours carries risk. Heathrow is not forgiving of tight connections, and neither is the airline if you miss your onward flight because of it.

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Gatwick is London's second airport and, for a significant number of visitors, the better one to arrive at. It handles around 47 million passengers a year across two terminals. It is smaller than Heathrow, less complicated, and — this matters after a long flight — considerably less exhausting to navigate. If you have a choice of which London airport to fly into, the decision is worth thinking about carefully rather than defaulting to the famous name.

Two Terminals, One Important Difference

Gatwick has a North Terminal and a South Terminal. Unlike Heathrow's five-terminal spread, both of Gatwick's terminals are on the same site and connected by a free, frequent, and fast monorail that takes about two minutes. Missing your terminal at Gatwick is easily corrected. Missing your terminal at Heathrow can cost you an hour. This is one of several ways in which Gatwick is simply less stressful than its larger rival.

That said, you still need to know which terminal your flight uses before you travel. easyJet operates almost exclusively from the North Terminal. British Airways, Norwegian, TUI, and most long-haul carriers use the South Terminal. Check before you go. The monorail fixes mistakes, but it still takes time you might not have if your connection is tight.

Passport Control and Customs

The process at Gatwick mirrors Heathrow exactly: e-gates for eligible biometric passport holders, manned desks for everyone else, then baggage reclaim, then customs. The ETA requirement that applies at Heathrow applies equally here — there are no exceptions by airport. If you need one and don't have one, Gatwick's border officers will turn you around just as efficiently as Heathrow's will.

Where Gatwick differs meaningfully is in queue times. Because it handles fewer long-haul flights than Heathrow — and therefore fewer situations where five wide-body jets land within the same thirty minutes — passport control queues at Gatwick are generally shorter and more predictable. Not always, and not guaranteed, but as a consistent pattern, processing times here tend to be better than at Heathrow. For travellers who have experienced an hour-long queue at Heathrow passport control after a transatlantic flight, this difference is not trivial.

Getting Into London from Gatwick

The Gatwick Express is a dedicated rail service to London Victoria that runs every 15 minutes and takes 30 minutes. At approximately £22 for a single with a contactless card, it is more expensive than taking the Tube from Heathrow but covers a longer distance quickly and efficiently. Victoria is a well-connected hub that will get you onward by Tube, bus, or taxi without difficulty.

Here is what most guides fail to mention: the Gatwick Express is not the only train from Gatwick to London, and it is not always the right one. Southern and Thameslink also run services from Gatwick to London Bridge, St Pancras International, Farringdon, and Blackfriars — all on the same tracks, stopping at more stations, taking slightly longer, and costing considerably less. If your destination in London is closer to London Bridge or anywhere on the Thameslink corridor, a regular Southern service may deliver you closer to your hotel, faster overall, for less money. Check the journey planners rather than assuming the Express is automatically the right product.

Taxis from Gatwick to central London cost broadly £80 to £110 depending on destination and traffic, and the journey takes 45 minutes to well over an hour depending on conditions on the M23 and M25. Gatwick sits 30 miles south of London — further from the city than Heathrow — and the road journey reflects that. Uber operates from Gatwick, as do pre-booked minicab services. For groups with luggage, a shared taxi can be reasonable value. For a solo traveller, the train is nearly always the right answer.

Heathrow vs Gatwick — The Honest Comparison

Heathrow wins on connections to more destinations globally and on the speed and cost of its Elizabeth line link into central London. If you are flying with British Airways, American Airlines, or another major carrier on a transatlantic or long-haul route, Heathrow is probably where you will land regardless of preference.

Gatwick wins on simplicity. It is a calmer, more manageable airport. Its two-terminal layout is intuitive, passport control queues are usually shorter, and the overall experience of arriving there is less likely to leave you feeling as though the airport itself was the hardest part of the trip. Budget and charter carriers — easyJet, Norse Atlantic, Corsair, and others — operate there in large numbers, which is why it handles a high proportion of leisure travellers rather than business passengers. That tends to produce a slightly more relaxed atmosphere on the ground.

If you are given a genuine choice, flying into Gatwick and out of Heathrow — or vice versa — is a perfectly sensible arrangement that London's transport network supports easily. Depending on your next destination after London, or timing requirement, the airfare might work out cheaper. The two airports are connected by National Rail in under an hour. Treating them as interchangeable entry and exit points rather than assuming you must use the same one twice is a habit worth developing. If you are going on to Europe then flights from Luton and Stansted airports are often your cheapest option, but you need to factor in the cost of the train fare to get there.