What is your suggestion?
I’m proposing the ability to land aircraft on both runways at London Heathrow (LHR) in-game. This would be a tweak to the existing ATC system, enhancing realism and efficiency at one of the world’s busiest airports.
How would it work?
This feature would allow players to assign arriving aircraft to either runway, rather than limiting all landings to a single active runway. It could be managed through ATC controls — either automatically balancing arrivals between the two runways or giving players the option to manually allocate which runway each aircraft uses for landing. This mirrors Heathrow’s real-life operations, where both runways are heavily utilized for arrivals and departures.
What part of gameplay does it affect?
- ATC controls
- Stand allocation
- Airport management
Why would it be good for the game?
This feature would improve realism, better reflecting the way Heathrow manages a high volume of traffic using just two runways. It would also enhance gameplay by allowing stands to fill up more efficiently, reduce arrival delays, and provide a more engaging ATC management experience. Overall, it would add depth to the strategy and operational flow of the airport.
Great suggestion — but just a quick note on real-world operations:
At London Heathrow (LHR), both runways aren’t typically used for arrivals at the same time. Instead, Heathrow uses a runway alternation system. During normal westerly operations, one runway handles arrivals and the other departures, and they switch around 3 PM to give local communities a break from aircraft noise. On easterlies, 09L is usually used for landings, 09R for take-offs.
So while using both runways for arrivals might boost gameplay efficiency, it would actually diverge from how LHR is operated in real life — where noise management and runway alternation are key factors.
9 Likes
Hi Kubasan, thanks for the reply — great point! I’m aware of Heathrow’s runway alternation for noise management, but this suggestion actually came from a recent experience of mine. I was on a flight landing at LHR between 6am and 7am, when both runways were being used for arrivals, as they’re permitted to do during this busy window. It made me think how nice it would be to reflect that in the game. Right now, seeing so many empty stands at LHR in WOA feels a bit unrealistic, so incorporating this feature for peak hours could really improve the immersion. Thanks
Reference - “https://www.heathrow.com/content/dam/heathrow/web/common/documents/company/about/consultation/Making%20Better%20use%20of%20our%20existing%20runways.pdf”
4 Likes
Ok. Make sense. Anyway we will introduce very soon possibility to choose runway for landing
8 Likes
Awesome news! Will we also be able to choose which side the plane comes from? Please do a new dev blog whenever you are ready to share some more info 
About LHR, I have no idea how complex this would be or even if it’s possible or desirable, but: would you consider making dual landing possible for, say, the first 10 minutes after loading the airport to represent this dual landings during early mornings that happens in real life? Just a thought…
https://www.heathrow.com/company/local-community/noise/operations/runway-alternation
Using both runways for arrivals
We make every effort to adhere to the published runway alternation schedule. However, sometimes there may be a build-up of flights being held in the holding stacks. When this happens, the Government has set rules permitting NATS to land aircraft out of alternation, i.e. on the departures runway. In these circumstances, both runways will be used for arrivals for a temporary period. This is called Tactically Enhanced Arrivals Mode (TEAM) and is allowed after 07:00 on westerly operations when severe inbound congestion occurs, or is anticipated to occur, involving delays to arriving flights of 20 minutes or more. Under these circumstances we can land up to six aircraft an hour on the runway designated for departures. These rules have been in place since the alternation system was introduced in the 1970s.
Although not described as TEAM, we are also able to use both runways for arrivals between 06:00 - 07:00 without being limited to a set number because this hour is the busiest time of day for arrivals into Heathrow.
2 Likes