If you’re eligible to use the airside flight connections facilities at Heathrow, connecting flights and switching terminals is easy. This guide shows you how to do it.
Eligibility
ou can use the airside transfer facilities if either of these two scenarios apply:
- You’re travelling on a through-ticket on a single booking. Therefore if you have checked luggage, it will be checked through to your final destination, and there’s no need to pick it up and check it in again.
- Or you’re travelling on two separate flight bookings, but you have no checked luggage and you already have your boarding pass for your second flight.
If you’re travelling on two separate bookings and you have checked luggage, you’ll need to transfer landside, picking up your luggage and checking it in again. Click here for the landside connections guide.
Follow Purple Signs
In the UK, arriving and departing passengers are completely separated, so you don’t pass through the departure lounge automatically. Therefore as soon as you enter the airport from your arriving aircraft, look for the purple signs for ‘Flight Connections’.
Change Terminals via Bus
If your next flight is departing from a different terminal, after following signs to ‘Flight Connections’, you will be directed to board a bus to take you to the new terminal. These buses run every 6-10 minutes and don’t take long, as they are able to use the airside roads.
If your next flight is from the same terminal, you won’t need to take a bus, and can proceed to the next step.
Passport Control
If you are arriving from an international flight and connecting onto a flight to a destination in the UK or Ireland, the next step will be to pass the UK border and have your passport inspected.
If you’re arriving from a UK or Ireland flight, or connecting to an international flight, you won’t need to go through passport control.
Security Check
If you’re arriving from an international flight, the final step will be to pass a security check. This is standard airport security, and may require you to take liquids and electronics out of your bag.
If you’ve arrived from a UK flight and your next flight departs from the same terminal, you won’t need to pass through the security check.
Find your Gate
After passport control and the security check (if applicable) you’ll find yourself in the departure lounge of the terminal your onward flight leaves from. Simply look at the information screens to see which gate your flight is departing from.
Whilst the process may sound complex, all you need to do is follow the signage, or ask staff if you’re unsure. The whole process should only take 15-20 minutes if connecting in the same terminal, or 20-40 minutes if you need to transfer terminals using the airside buses.