Originally Posted by
BMarkus
And the peak is this runway swapping at 3pm. I don't know why they are doing this. However, this results that many flights have to wait until 3pm before they can hit the runway. At the and some flights are then 30 to 60 min delayed because of this.
Heathrow swaps runways at 3pm every day so that it gives the residents living under the immediate flight path a break from arrival traffic. This is only for the westerly 27 runways. For runway 09, the majority of landings are on 09L as rhe departures are on 09R; something about the taxiway to 09L not being suitable for all aircraft sizes with T5 domestic gates being so close to the runway threshold (I think).