How Early to Arrive at Heathrow: Timing Your Departure Properly

It is easy to leave far too early for Heathrow and spend an hour at the gate, or a little too late and spend the drive watching the clock. The right answer sits in between: how early to arrive at Heathrow comes down to three things, your airline, your terminal and the time of day.

How early should you arrive at Heathrow?

Heathrow's own guidance is to arrive two hours before a flight within the UK or Europe and three hours before a long-haul international flight. Your airline's instructions come first, though, because the deadline that matters is the airline's check-in and bag-drop cut-off, which can be earlier for some routes and fares. Check your booking for that time before you plan anything else. Arriving much earlier than advised does not help: check-in desks for your flight may not be open yet, and Heathrow has asked passengers not to arrive too early because it adds to congestion. One more point is easy to miss. When a delay is announced, airlines usually still ask you to check in at the normal time, so plan around the scheduled departure and let any delay be time spent in the lounge.

Know your Heathrow terminal before you leave

Heathrow has four passenger terminals, numbered 2 to 5, and they are some distance apart. Your terminal is on your booking confirmation and in your airline's app. As a rule of thumb, British Airways flies mainly from Terminal 5, but airlines do move between terminals from time to time, so check your own booking rather than relying on memory or on your last trip.

Arriving at the wrong terminal costs time you may not have. When you book with us, we confirm your terminal from your flight details, and your chauffeur drops you at the departures entrance of the right one.

Working back from your flight

We plan every Heathrow departure backwards. The starting point is your airline's check-in or bag-drop deadline. To that we add a margin for the walk in and the queue, then the drive time for that particular hour of the day, which on the M4 and the M25 can change a great deal between a quiet early morning and the evening rush.

The result is a collection time set for your flight and your hour of travel, which gets you to the terminal comfortably before your airline's advised arrival time. If you would rather have more time at the airport for a lounge or for shopping, tell us and we will build that in.

DRVSTAR operates around the clock, so a very early departure is booked in exactly the same way as a mid-morning one. Your chauffeur arrives at your door at the agreed time, loads your luggage and drives you to the terminal, with the price fixed before you travel.

Busy days and early mornings

Heathrow is busiest around school holidays, bank holiday weekends and the days either side of Christmas and New Year. On those days, queues at check-in and security are more likely to be long, and it is sensible to allow extra time beyond the standard two or three hours. We add a margin for traffic at peak periods too. If your ticket includes Fast Track through security, or you buy it separately, it shortens that one queue but not check-in, so it is not a reason to leave later.

Early-morning departures are a different case. The roads into Heathrow are usually clear before dawn, so the drive tends to be quicker, but you still need to meet the same check-in deadline. That makes early flights the easiest to plan well, and the most uncomfortable to get wrong, because there is little time to recover once you are behind.

Landing at Heathrow and flying on from Gatwick? See our guide to the connection to Gatwick.

Travelling with children or extra luggage

Families and groups need more time at every stage, from loading the car to bag drop. Tell us when you book how many of you are travelling and how many cases you have, and we will send the right car. A Mercedes V-Class seats up to seven and stays comfortable for five with luggage, and child seats can be arranged on request, so the whole party travels together and arrives at the terminal at the same time.