Heathrow departures: live flights and what to do before you fly

Find the flight by airline and destination, read across to the terminal, and use the scheduled departure time to plan your arrival at the airport. The rest of this page is the part that does not change with today's specific flight: how early to arrive, how check-in and security work right now, and what airside looks like once you are through. Many of the busiest departure numbers have their own page in the flight directory, with the terminal, check-in guidance, and a live-status link. The Flight information hub is the parent page for the wider cluster.

Your departure terminal at Heathrow comes from the airline, not the destination, and Heathrow's four operating terminals are arranged broadly by alliance. Terminal 2 departures are the Star Alliance hub (Lufthansa, United Airlines, Singapore Airlines, ANA, Air Canada and around 20 more), with Aer Lingus the long-running oneworld exception and ITA Airways the newest Star arrival from March 2026. Terminal 3 departures are most of oneworld (American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Qantas, Royal Jordanian, plus Alaska Airlines from May 2026) alongside Virgin Atlantic and Delta. Terminal 4 departures are SkyTeam (Air France, KLM, Korean Air, China Eastern) plus Qatar Airways, Etihad, Malaysia Airlines, Royal Air Maroc, and Pakistan International Airlines. Terminal 5 departures are British Airways and Iberia only, plus Iberia Express on Madrid.

The boarding pass and the airline's confirmation email both list the terminal. If neither is to hand, which terminal your flight uses resolves it by airline. The full per-carrier table is on airlines flying from Heathrow by terminal; codeshares depart from the operating carrier's terminal, not the marketing carrier's.

Heathrow's published guidance is 2 hours before a short-haul flight and 3 hours before a long-haul flight. Check-in itself closes 45 minutes before short-haul and 60 minutes before long-haul, so the recommended window covers check-in, bag drop, security, and the walk to the gate with a sensible buffer. The peak departure windows are roughly 05:00 to 08:00 in the morning (the long-haul wave) and 16:00 to 19:00 in the late afternoon (the short-haul European outbound peak); the 3-hour figure exists for those windows in particular. For a flight in that first wave, the catch is travelling in at 04:00; some passengers sleep at the airport or book a nearby hotel the night before instead.

Heathrow itself reported in its 2025 full-year results that more than 97% of passengers waited under 5 minutes at security through the year, a result of the £1bn next-generation scanner rollout completed across the four terminals in January 2026. That is why the recommended buffer rarely gets eaten in practice. Treat the airport's published rule as the rule, not as overcautious padding, particularly at the morning long-haul peak when even a small disruption can move 30 minutes of slack onto the wrong side of the line.

If you are self-connecting at Heathrow on separate tickets, the same rule applies to you. You clear UK immigration on the first arrival, collect any checked bag, exit landside, re-check in at the next airline's desk, and re-clear security like any other departing passenger. Allow at least the full 2 or 3 hours from the moment you reach the departure terminal, on top of the time to clear arrivals and move between terminals.

Check-in opens at different times by airline, and Heathrow itself does not run check-in (the airlines do). Most short-haul flights open check-in 2 to 3 hours before departure; long-haul opens 3 to 4 hours before. As a named example, British Airways Euro Traveller at Terminal 5 opens bag drop 2 hours before departure but never earlier than 04:30, even for the very first flights of the day, then closes 45 minutes before. BA long-haul opens earlier and closes 60 minutes before. Other airlines publish their own windows.

Online check-in is the cleanest path. It opens roughly 24 hours before departure on most carriers, you arrive with the boarding pass already on your phone, and you either go straight to bag drop or, with carry-on only, straight to security. The full per-airline opening times sit on check-in opening times by airline. For carry-on dimensions, hold weight limits, and the rules for oversized items, the luggage allowances and rules page is the place. The official guidance is on heathrow.com/departures/checking-in.

Two things make Heathrow security different from the older 100ml-bag-and-laptop-out routine. Since 23 January 2026 the airport has run next-generation CT scanners across all four terminals, completing a £1bn rollout that lets you keep up to 2 litres of liquids and electronics in the bag. Each container can be larger than 100ml; you no longer need the clear plastic bag. The detailed rules and the small list of exceptions sit on liquids and hand luggage rules.

Fast Track security runs 06:00 to 21:00 daily at all four terminals, from £12.99 booked ahead through Heathrow's own service. It is included automatically with British Airways Club Europe, Club World and First, Virgin Atlantic Upper Class and Premium, most other premium-cabin tickets, lounge passes that bundle it, and the elite tiers of all three alliances (oneworld Sapphire and Emerald, Star Alliance Gold, SkyTeam Elite Plus) on departures from the respective alliance terminals. Security wait times at Heathrow covers the live picture and the terminal-by-terminal pattern through the day. The official guidance is on heathrow.com Fast Track and heathrow.com security and baggage.

Airside opens up immediately after security. Each terminal has its own concourse with lounges, restaurants, bars, and duty free, plus seating clustered in the centre of the airside hall rather than at every gate. The gate is announced on the airport's screens roughly 45 minutes before departure (the airline's app usually shows it earlier), so the practical pattern is to settle in airside for the first hour or so and watch the boards as the slot approaches. One thing airside does not have is anywhere to smoke: Heathrow is smoke-free after security, so the designated smoking and vaping areas are all landside, before you go through.

Lounges by terminal covers the full lounge map: BA's Galleries Club, Galleries First, and the flagship Concorde Room at T5; Plaza Premium, No1 Lounge, Clubrooms, Centurion and the airline lounges at T3; Lufthansa Business and Senator, Singapore SilverKris, United Club and Air Canada Maple Leaf at T2; the SkyTeam, Qatar Premium, Plaza Premium, and Saudia rooms at T4. Heathrow duty free shopping has the brand line-up by terminal, the Reserve and Collect service, and the post-2021 VAT-refund position.

Heathrow connects to 230 destinations in 85 countries on more than 80 airlines, the deepest international network of any UK airport. North America and Asia anchor the long-haul flying, with the Gulf, Africa, and South America also well-represented through the day. UK domestic from T5 (British Airways to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness, Manchester, Newcastle, Belfast, plus Guernsey from April 2026) and Dublin from T2 (Aer Lingus) cover the regional and Ireland end. The route lookups by region and by carrier are on where Heathrow flies.