Heathrow at Richmond

As picturesque as the local area is you cannot escape the fact that Richmond-upon-Thames is smack under the flight path. So as my morning trundle along the tow path beside the Thames was disrupted by yet another plane it got me thinking. What is Heathrow all about?  Here are some facts.

1. Despite local claims to the contrary it is not the busiest airport in the world. That title lies with Atlanta which has more aircraft ''movement'' than any other. Heathrow comes in a lowly 13th. The top 7 airports based on aircraft movement (1 landing and take off ) are all based in the USA with Beijing breaking the pattern coming in 8th.

2. Heathrow is not even the busiest by passenger movements. It comes in 4th. Superseded by Atalanta at the top then Beijing and Chicago.

3. Where Heathrow tops the list is busiest airport by international passenger traffic. A clear 5 million passengers clear of second place which is Paris (40,239,000 versus 35,526,000)

4. Cargo? Forget it. Heathrow is 16th in the world in terms of total tonnage. Memphis is a clear leader there and I'm guessing (without looking) that is must be the hub for either Fedex or UPS.

5. With two airstrips running parallel to each other at Heathrow, air traffic control has the stated goal to land 38-40 per hour on each.

6. Busiest air route? Heathrow doesn't get a mention until 37th (Heathrow to JFK in New York). Tokyo to Sapporo is first by a long way. Then Seoul to Jeju (eh???) followed by Tokyo to Fukuoka and  rounding out the top 4 is the Sydney to Melbourne route.

7. There is supposedly a curfew from 11pm to 6 am at Heathrow so it got me wondering then why a Cathay Pacific flight was seemingly about to park itself on my roof at 4.45am. 

British Airports politely informed me that yes there is a curfew but there are 18 ''night flight'' allowances made of which 17 land between 4.30 am and 6 am  and the other between 11 and midnight.

8. So then it got me thinking wouldn't it be nice not to have an airport. There are in fact 5 countries in the world that don't have one. Liechtenstein, Andorra, Vatican City, San Marino, Monaco. Remember that for your next trivia night.

The sht you learn when you have the time.