London is served by dozens of airports, airfields, RAF bases and short runways. To keep things manageable, we've included below only the six international airports, plus significant operational runways within the Greater London boundary. A fuller list of civil and military airstrips, past and present, in the wider London region can be found here.
Biggin Hill
You'd have been hard pressed to find Biggin Hill on the map a century ago. It was little more than a farm, on the edge of an ancient settlement known as Aperfield. Then came the RAF base, which took the name of the farm. The base played such an important role in the Second World War that boring old Aperfield found itself renamed as the town of Biggin Hill. Why that original farm was called Biggin Hill in the first place remains a mystery, however.
London's most prosaically named airport, and its newest, opened in 1987 on an unused strip of land in the Royal Docks. The terminal is around seven miles from the Square Mile that it's named after, but London City Airport was always going to attract more business than London Formerly Derelict Maritime Infrastructure Airport.
Gatwick
When you see a 'wick' or 'wich' on the end of a landlocked place name, it often denotes a market or some other form of trading settlement. Chiswick, for example, was probably a place that produced and sold cheese. It is an absolute delight, therefore to learn that Gatwick is thought to be Anglo-Saxon for 'goat farm'. We say 'thought to' because the name isn't recorded until as late as 1241, long after the Norman conquest, when the 'de Gatwicks' were lording it over the area. Their adopted name is unmistakably Anglo-Saxon, however.
A small grassy airfield, one of the earliest in the London area, opened here in 1930 beside the sleepy hamlet of Heathrow. This settlement was first recorded in 1410 as La Hetherewe, meaning simply a row of houses on a heath. Sorry, bit boring that one. Move along.
Luton
Luton has an Anglo-Saxon origin and means simply 'town on the Lea'. Yes, the River Lea, which today passes the Olympic Park, and begins its journey to the Thames in the Luton area. Lea itself is thought to derive from Celtic (pre-Roman) times, perhaps meaning 'bright' or 'light'. This gives Luton the oldest name derivation of any London airport.
RAF Northolt
The only operational RAF base within Greater London, Northolt also handles private civil flights. Northolt is an ancient name, recorded in the Domesday Book as Northala, and in a 10th century source as Nord Healum. A modern translation might be 'north heath'. The old name is recalled in Northala Fields, a series of artificial mounds created from the rubble of old Wembley Stadium.
Southend
A geographically controversial inclusion perhaps, but Southend is officially designated as one of London's six international airports. At 42 miles from the capital, it is the city's most distant air hub. Originally, Southend-on-Sea was literally (and littorally) the 'south end' of another village, Prittlewell. Thanks to its coastal location, this little-dell of Prittlewell grew into a popular beach resort, and soon became the dominant conurbation.
Stansted
The Essex airport, some 35 miles outside of London, is named after the adjacent village of Stansted Mountfitchet. The name Stansted goes back to Saxon times, and translates as 'stoney place', a lithic harbinger of the acres of tarmac and concrete that, a millennium later, would characterise the modern airport. The second part of the village's name comes from local land owner William de Mountfichet (1086-1156). This Norman baron unwittingly made his mark on the tube map. He founded Stratford Langthorne Abbey in 1135 — its memory lives on into the 21st century in Abbey Road DLR station.
The name Heathrow is named after the ancient hamlet Heath Row, upon where the airport is now built. The settlement, which was largely an agricultural area, was demolished fully in 1944 to make way for the development of the airfield.
Its name derives from the Old English gāt (goat) and wīc (dairy farm); i.e. "goat farm". 12 July 1841: The London and Brighton Railway opened, and ran near Gatwick Manor. 1890: The descendants of the original owners sold the area to the newly established Gatwick Race Course Company.
Heathrow Airport (/ˌhiːθˈroʊ, ˈhiːθroʊ/), called London Airport until 1966 (IATA: LHR, ICAO: EGLL), is the main international airport serving London, the capital of England and the United Kingdom.
Airports are named after people who make major contributions to the United States that may also have a tie to the community where the facility is located. But as times change, sometimes airport names can change, which is the case of Las Vegas's airport.
As Gatwick rose to prominence, it became increasingly apparent that 'London Airport' needed a less generic name. This would help distinguish it from its counterpart in the south. Named after the hamlet it was built on, London Airport became Heathrow Airport in 1966.
'London's largest airport, Heathrow, is hemmed in by the suburbs and limited to just two runways,' he explains. 'Because it can't expand, the demand for air travel is met by smaller, single-runway airports around the South-East: Gatwick, Stansted, Luton and Southend.
In 1990, the airport was renamed London Luton Airport to re-emphasise the airport's proximity to the UK capital. In 1991, another setback occurred when Ryanair, which had flown from the airport to Ireland for a number of years, transferred its London operating base from Luton to rival Stansted.
The name Stansted goes back to Saxon times, and translates as 'stoney place', a lithic harbinger of the acres of tarmac and concrete that, a millennium later, would characterise the modern airport. The second part of the village's name comes from local land owner William de Mountfichet (1086-1156).
Stansted airport used to be a military base and has had its London tag for around 60 years after being converted for commercial usage. It's link to London became more credible when it was given a direct link to the capital over 30 years ago in 1991.
London Croydon Airport was Britain's first major international airport. It played a major role in the development of global air travel after World War One and has a significant place in early 20th century British history.
Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) has entered into an agreement to purchase a 10% stake in London's Heathrow airport, marking a significant shift in the airport's ownership structure. The stake is being acquired from Spanish infrastructure giant Ferrovial, which has been a stakeholder since 2006.
Before the 1930s, US airports used a two-letter abbreviation, and at that time, "LA" served as the designation for Los Angeles Airport. With the rapid growth in the aviation industry, in 1947, the identifiers expanded to three letters, and "LA" received an extra letter to become "LAX".
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is the fourth busiest airport in the world and second busiest in the United States, based on number of passengers. In 2018, 78.5 million passengers used LAX.
The K-prefix was assigned by the International Civil Aviation Organization to the continental United States. The three-letter airport codes are designated by IATA, while the four-letter codes are designated by ICAO.
Major wrote back expressing an interest in the name change: “Thank you for your intriguing idea about renaming Heathrow Airport after Sir Winston Churchill. I am looking into this, and I am grateful to you for raising it.” The changes to the name were never made, and the archives do not make it clear why.
The airport was renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport on December 24, 1963, a month and two days after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy; Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. proposed the renaming.
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