Originally Posted by
florens
I must have been really lucky, since I rarely encountered a holding pattern into LHR, but often merely an orbit (360° turn) and then into the arrival transition. The only holding patterns I remember were once during IRROPS and one during the runway switch at 15h00.
That, surely, is a holding pattern, albeit a short one, probably only 5 minutes.
Holding patterns do seem to have improved in the last year or so. A 30 or 45 minutes hold, so 6 or more times around the loop, aren't so common these days, and they used to be a near fact of life. Usually it's 1 to 3 times around. I've had quite a number of direct flights into LHR of late, including NCLs with gate to gate times with under an hour. For example BA1333 yesterday took off at 15:27 and landed at 16:21, which meant the aircraft arrived 20 minutes early on a schedule that gives 80 minutes for the 250 mile trip. On 1 May it took only 50 minutes runway to runway.
Getting airborne from LHR within 20 minutes of pushback is more trying!