In case you're wondering about his rude comment about City airport, it's because it's right in the heart of London and is mainly used by business travellers.

RAF is the shorthand for Royal Air Force. Fun fact when the 50th anniversary came around nobody was planning anything, so an RAF Pilot stole a Hawker Hunter and flew under Tower Bridge. Edit: here is a link Tower Bridge Fighter Jet Incident | Tales From the Bottle kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rpd0lbGQuJjMYqM.html

Pre pandemic, Gatwick for decades held the title of the busiest single runway airport in the world. It is planning on bringing it's emergency runway into full use by moving the main one a the required minimum distance away (they are currently too close to use at the same time) as it had grown to it's maximum limits.

in london is a bit of a misnomer, apart from city airport that is on the thames, the rest are on the outskirts, or even further.

RAF = Royal Air Force. I grew up next to RAF Northolt. It gets used during fly-overs on occasions like Battle of Britain day and VE day. It's the only RAF base inside the M25 London ring road. All the WW2 planes fly in from around the country like spitfires, hurricanes and Lancaster bombers and get prepared for the event. It was amazing because they would circle right over our house until they were all up before flying over London. Once you hear the sound of a Rolls Royce Merlin engine you never forget it. ✌️♥️🇬🇧

Heathrow and Gatwick are the main airports for long haul flights (as well as short haul) - so would likely be the places you'd enter the UK. Luton and Stansted service short to mid haul flights to Europe and North Africa. Southend and London City also have flights to Europe.

I love Jay Foreman's videos. Both his shows Unfinished London and Map Men are so well done.

Most American airlines fly into London Heathrow and London Gatwick, London Stanstead and London Luton are mainly used by European and UK package holiday charter services to Europe. London Southend used to do the air ferry services (carrying cars and passengers to Europe) on specially adapted aircraft, but I don't know if that still happens. London city airport is more of a business persons airport with flights connecting main European cities to London's city centre business/financial areas. I have flown to various places in the US on five occasions on US carriers, twice from London Heathrow, twice from London Gatwick and once back in the 1980s from London Stanstead.

It's crazy I live very close to London Stansted airport but I don't live in London I live in Essex, so weird 🤣 but M11 motorway + great train and bus links are there to shuttle you into London in absolutely no time! 👍

In the 70s, my aunt and uncle lived on the estate that was built on part of what had been Croydon Airport, the Roundshaw estate. When we went to visit, my cousins and I would go and play on the fields at the back of where they lived. At the time, we had no idea we were playing on what used to be London's main airport, and people would have flown all over the world from the very ground we were playing on!

Heathrow is mainly long haul and has many terminals. Its not INSANE to have that many airports if you take into account a. he size of the London, b. the high population density in SE England, our proximity to the continent of mainland Europe. London airport in the very early days was Croydon. I flew out of Stanstad as a small child in 1961. It was just Nissan Huts. I spent two days there with my family awaiting a RAF flight out to Aden in the Yemen.

Biggin Hill airport is not a mere RAF base only a small part of it is still dedicated to the RAF. It is now a airport for Private aviation & large business jets my Stepson works there in immigration & has seen many celebrities & Royalty that have flown in & out. ❤️🇬🇧

New York has 6 too. Los Angeles has 5. San Fancisco has 4. Miami and Boston also have 4.

Biggin Hill a Battle of Britain airfield became an international airport, Northolt or RAF Northolt is still in use by the RAF this is where Diana Princess of Wales was brought back after the crash in Paris and also where HM The Queen was brought back after her death in Scotland. Hendon has a RAF Museum and the Police college.

I suggest that Steve studies the role of the Royal Air Force in 1940, in particular in the Battle of Britain, in which Winston Churchill described their contribution in his speech which contained the ever-memorable words ‘Never in the field of human conflict was so owed by so many to so few’. The ‘Few’ were those young men who flew the fighters which fought off what Germany thought would be its final and devastating aerial campaign to bring Britain to its knees. Because of those valiant young RAF pilots, some of them from other lands, we hung on until two other major powers were later on finally attacked themselves and forced to join in. THAT’s what the RAF was - and is.

What an excellent historical video...👍

Stanstead being an ex-military base has, I understand one of the longest runways in the UK. It is, also, I understand our 'Hijack' centre. So any aircraft taken by terrorists is guided here where it can then be dealt with. I also understand that when President Obama, Trump, and Biden visited the UK, Air Force One landed and was stored here.

11:40 I've used London City, and although I don't work in the City, some people say I'm a bit of one.

Gatwick is very popular too :)

LCY is a great airport, lots of tourist city break destinations? LGW definitely a favourite, not too big? Easy to get to...

LCY has a very steep approach in order to minimise its noise footprint. Very few pilots are qualified to land there. The tall buildings at Canary Wharf are scarily close to the aircraft coming in to land from the west. Fortunately our predominantly westerly winds mean that they usually land from the east.

Northolt is near where I live and is a joint RAF and private airport. Gatwick is used now for long haul flights as well as short haul. It has a decided rail station attached to it that will get you into central London relatively quickly.

That was a really fun video, I hope you do more from that channel

Some context that this video is missing, is what each airport is used for. Heathrow and Gatwick are the main airports that serve cross-continental flights. Coming from outside Europe, all flights to London will land at either Heathrow or Gatwick, mainly Heathrow. Stansted, Luton and Southend are all mainly used for vacation flights to Southern Europe as well as low budget airlines like Ryanair and Easyjet, with Stansted also having a big focus on cargo and being the main cargo hub for London. London City Airport is in the Canary Wharf business district close to the city centre, and mostly serves business class travel to other cities in Western Europe (City airport's small runway means only smaller jets can land there, which don't fly as far). For travel between European countries, low-budget airlines usually fly to either Stansted, Luton, or sometimes Southend depending on which airport the airline is using as its London hub. Other European flights are split roughly evenly between Heathrow and Gatwick. Cross-continental flights mainly land at Heathrow, with Gatwick providing extra capacity as Heathrow is already at capacity and hardly able to accomodate additional long-haul flights.

Heathrow has a Tube connection so really easy public transportwise to get to. Gatwick is on the train network 30ish mins to central London.

RAF The Worlds first independent Air Force (1918) That's 30 years before the USAF came in to being by the way!

You would be familiar with Heathrow as it is the main long haul airport. So if you fly to and from the USA or Australia, for example, it would most likely be Heathrow. The other airports tend to be mainly, but not exclusively, short haul and domestic flights. By which I mean flights to Europe and within the UK. Of course we have large airport in other city's ie. Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds etc.

I live near Biggin Hill and it's still used for short flights. It has an RAF heritage museum there.

About 10 years ago, there were talks to add Cardiff Airport to the roostermix too. The talk was about making Cardiff to an extention of Heathrow and call it Terminal 4 or 5 whatever number they were on at that time. They talked about building a trainline from Cardiff Airport to Heathrow, more or less a second high-speed rail like Heathrow Express, but since nothing had happened I guess that is off the table now.

Of course the flying bus is real!!!

I used to be a systems auditor, and I spent half my time going to airports and flying overseas. I have flown from all those airports, and my least favourite are Luton (the nearest one to me) and Stansted. They just can't seem to handle large queues. My favourites are Heathrow and Gatwick. London City Airport is somewhere in the middle

Actually flying Newark to Birmingham (if it is still running) is the best route into the UK from the US. I found both have the minimal delays on the ground ie your not taxing on Long island forever or have the 2 hour preflight cut off at Heathrow. Last time I travelled Newark-Birmingham we caught a 200+ mph jet steam and thus had a ground speed faster the the speed of sound! It also took me 10 minutes from aircraft seat to collecting my bags in Birmingham.

From Southend here! I love the fact that I have an airport right on my doorstep. The only problem is that they only fly to a handful of destinations 😢

It's interesting you mention Thurleigh Airport as its next to my home town of Bedford, during the early 1970's they made the Battle of Britain movie & us kids watched them old war planes like spitfires doing dog fighting from our school playground, plus a very famous American (Glen Miller) flew from Thurleigh Airport after visiting my town Bedford to do a last concert, it was his last flight & was never seen again after his plane crashed, we have his sculpture on Bedford town Square to remember him.

I flew from Gatwick to Cuba and a year or so later southern Ireland via Heathrow 😊 so not always long haul.

My dad used to work for British Airways at Gatwick and lived nearby in Staines, he remembers his whole house shaking when Concorde flew over.

Steve, another airport is Northolt close to west London. However it is a Royal Air Force airport used, for example if the Prime Minister or King Charles III was on a trip. Gatwick is used for many American flights. City Airport is very close to the financial Canary Wharf. I flew out of Heathrow in 1960 before the terminals we know today were built, the "terminal" being a small temporary building. I was the only Economy Class passenger on a DC8 of Japan Airways and flew to Paris Orly Airport just for the fun of it! The other passengers were four Japanese ladies in Business Class so I had the whole of Economy Class to myself.

A friend of mine did some acceptance tests at Biggin Hill for RAF helicopter pilot.

Heathrow and London City are the main airports for scheduled and business flights. Gatwick is mainly tourists and charter flights. Those 3 are the "London Airports" (maybe Battersea Heliport). Luton has nothing to do with London, it's a marketing ploy. Stanstead is a cut price airline airport for cheap flights (MUCH more expensive when you include getting there) and was mainly a business charter airport and boneyard. Southend is again nothing to do with London and was a freight airport and another boneyard/storage airport though it used to host car ferry flights back in the day. There was also Manston, an old RAF base some 74 miles from London which tried (briefly) to jump on the bandwagon, but shut in 1999. It is now used as a storage area for lorries heading to Europe after the Brexit controls came into force.

RAF Royal Air Force. I've flown and arrived at both Heathrow and Gatwick. All my flights are long-haul flights from New Zealand. As such they are most likely to land at Heathrow.

my mum and dad used to watch the international flights takeoff from Croydon airport. they caught the bus to the aerodrome

I lived on the Graham park estate which was the Hendon aerodrome, for nearly twenty years and all the blocks of flats and houses are names after pilots and planes. I grew up going to the RAF museum and it still has some of the original buildings. really the only two airports that are now in London is just Heathrow and London city airport. all the other airports are on the outside of London.

I came by chance just 1 click and I find very Interesting. Very Interesting Video. Ty. Ty

Hi Steve. Now there's a blast from the past I originally come Hendon. I know the aero drone well me my brothers and sister and friends used to play there all the time. O what fun we had. And watching the plane's take off and land. it was used as a military base to. by the RAF I think but not sure. From 🇬🇧 an old cockney gal. 😄👍👍

Flew to and from Kai Tak, Kong Kong in 1959 and 1962 from Stansted in Bristol Britannias. Days when flying was more about going on an adventure...both times sitting backwards.

Love his face reacting to inane english humour!

London Heathrow and London city are in London ,Luton Stansted and Gatwick are over 35 miles from London , but technically there is one more a helicopter airport at Battersea , technically the closest to the centre of London,

Stansted is used also when a US president visits the UK, and it is also the chosen airport for landing plans when it has kidnappers on board.

There are 6 airports but technically they are not all actually in London. London City and Heathrow are the only two that are actually inside the M25 motorway, which goes round the greater London area. The others are all outside this. Also, you generally get different airlines and destinations from each airport. To fly to America you most probably can only fly from Heathrow or Gatwick. London City Airport is located closest to centre of London. It has a single short and narrow runway and a vert steep angle of approach and departure for planes. As result there is a lot of restrictions on the planes that can actually us it ( in terms of noise and their physical ability to be a land and take-off safely on its runway).

Los Angeles has six airports as well. 1. LAX 2. Hollywood Burbank 3. Van Nuys 4. John Wayne (Orange County) 5. Long Beach 6. Ontario

I will be flying from Stansted Airport to majorca on Monday. Never been to Stansted before , always flown from Gatwick in the past . 😊

Surprised you haven't heard of Gatwick. It's my usual airport. I can understand why the others aren't as well known though.

Technically Gatwick, Luton and Stansted are not in London. They're linked by motorway's which allow them to be very easily accessed from London, they should really be termed South East England airports. Also South East England has a population of 18 million people, that and the proximity to mainland Europe makes that many airports quite sensible!

The Brits kept the original orthography of the words they adopted. They call airplanes aeroplanes which in Hellenic🇬🇷 means: Αεροπλάνο / aeroplàno > aeroplane Aèras = air Plàno (verb) = floating So, the vehicle floating into to air. Also, aerodrome Αεροδρόμιο / aerodròmio > aerodrome Aèras = air Dròmos = road, path. The road for the aeroplanes to land!

There is also part of an airport in Wimbledon Station goods yard. The hanger from The Port of Newhaven. Used for Sea Planes during WW1. Was moved to Wimbledon in 1923 now a listed building.

London used to have even more tAirports, in areas that are now completely built over, such as Croydon> We also used to do Lido's (Outdoor public swimming pools very well) there are only a few left in London.

Gatwick is in the south of london,i fly in there when visiting my brother in hampshire which is on the south coast of england, whereas when he was in london i would go to either heathrow or stansted which are west and north respectively of where i wanted to go.I have basically two choices of where to fly from i can take a train to dublin and fly out of there or i can literally fly out of a field in the middle of nowhere called Knock airport where your president flew in last week .

Not all airlines fly in to all of the airports so you may not have a choice .

I'm flying to visit NJ for the fourth time soon. Sometimes the tour company uses flights from Heathrow to Philadelphia, sometimes Gatwick to Newark. I much prefer the former as both airports are bigger and Heathrow is only around 30 miles away.

When he said that London City Airport is only used by *wankers,* he was referring to its use by city *bankers.*

Southend FTW, heathrow = International stanstedn = english holiday destinations the rest cheap flights to scotland and cornwall.

Good old Gatwick, perfect for the south Londoner. Excellent frequent high speed train service to Croydon and the City, unlike Heathrow which is hell to travel to/from!

Part 2 please!

I have used four of the six including London City as a holiday destination - flew direct to Granada. Stansted and Southend not tried.

Only two of London's airports are actually in London, Heathrow and City. Heathrow and Gatwick are the largest airports with the most air traffic and the easiest to access via train from central London. Stansted and Southend airports are in Essex, Luton is in Bedfordshire.

I live about 9 miles from Heathrow but I never fly out from there if I can help it. Gatwick or Luton at a push but Heathrow is just a huge headache to fly from.

Although all these airports are named as London, Gatwick, Stansted and Luton are not exactly in London.

I used to work in greenford london, RAF northolt was a main airport for bringing in the primemister, there was the A40 direct road to london, but they took them through the town streets with the motor bike out riggers and the blacked out cars, we guess reason for this was should something happen, plenty exit routes, where if you on a dual carriage way, could me 3 miles before next exit route, so we saw alot of the elite peole pass our shop

Forget the London names on lots of airfields, I live on the Romney Marsh on the Kent coast we have an airport called Lydd. The owners have grand plans to expand airport into an international gateway. They have changed its name to London Ashford airport which is a joke considering we are 14 miles from Ashford and 59 from London. Without a major infrastructure project of roads and runways its just a pipe dream especially as there are strict planning laws as the Romney Marsh is designated an SSSI. A site of special scientific interest the only planes to use Lydd are mostly private single prop planes and the coast guard search and rescue helicopter

London Stanstead Airport it where the Jumbo Jet with the Space Shuttle on its back, landed on its Tour of the UK, and its my local Airport for some International destinations, but if I want to travel to the USA I tend to use Londons Heathrow Airport.

Stansted is the airport any hi-jacked aircraft or any aircraft intercepted by the RAF are forced to land at. Once they have landed the aircraft is steered towards a remote part of the airport. However its not as remote as people might think and any hostage takers will get a big surprise when security forces appear unexpected

Fun facts: The Stansted runway was built to handle B52 bombers! It is the default security emergency airport in the UK - any errant civilian aircraft is intercepted by the RAF & brought to land here. There was a several day long "highjacking" hostage siege here. Airforce One is a frequent visitor here. Whenever POTUS visits London or the UK, they arrive at Stansted.

I’m British born and bread and only knew Heathrow , Gatwick and Stanstead

Heathrow is the main airport for long haul flag carrier airlines. And the more prestigious independent ones such as Virgin Atlantic. Gatwick is the home of the long distance package holiday companies such as TUI Stansted is the home of the budget short haul carriers.. Mostly flights around Europe. Luton is similar City airport is for high rolling Buisiness travelers who absolutely need minimum distance from airport to the boardroom and are prepared to pay stupid figures for that. Most of the flight there are domestic or near Europe

I flew into BigginHill on a private jet it still does private services 🛩️👍🏻

Flying bus! 🤪

Stansted must be the airport in the world that people have the most trouble spelling! Even looking at these comments when the word appeared several times in the video, the extra "a" sneaks in often!

Wow London Southend airport is up the road from me I thought it might be on the list

Oxford is 52 miles from London, not 61 and Oxford Airport is now London Oxford Airport.🤭

Royal Air Force (RAF) They are also The Red Arrows

depending on where you are travelling from in the USA certain airlines only run to either gatwick or heathrow but alot will do both to. i prefer gatwick myself .

We flew to florida from Gatwick not Heathrow Also raf is royal Air force. There's a base right next to me civilian village.

Luton airport is about 40 miles from London just off juction 10 of the M1.

A few things... The only 2 airports in Greater London are: London Heathrow and London City Gatwick is in West Sussex Stansted is in Essex Luton is in Bedfordshire Southend is in Essex Where it says Roundshaw Park on the aerial photograph, just above the word "Park" is a but of tarmac. This is the Eastern end of the runway with some of the surviving taxiway. The part of the park with the runway exposed is in the London Borough of Croydon, the rest of the park on the western side, the part with the runway hidden is in the London borough of Sutton. Biggin Hill is still an operating airport to this day! Mainly light aircraft and private jets, but its definitely not closed!

The London Airports form the largest “City Group” of airports in the world by some margin.

Surprised you haven't heard of Gatwick. The smaller ones like Stansted and London city are for short flights (UK & Europe) and smaller planes.

The "Wright, brothers" did not invent powered flight in the very early 20th centuary, all they did was invite the press to witness it, several people had flown in powered aircraft in the U.K. before this date but had thought about publicing it, I believe one of the earlist took place in the late 1800's near to a small village called Dittisham, on the river dart, in south Devon, England. The RAF (Royal Air force) is the same as the USAF (United States Air Force).

London is also an international hub in a way that say Dallas isn’t

The older word you're looking for is aerodrome, a very British word, like aeroplane. I grew up when they were still called that.

RAF stands for Royal Air Force. While the United States military has its air sections under the banner of the army in the UK the armed forces are split into three seperate command structures being the army, the navy and the air force. There is a partial exception with the navy running fighter groups from their carriers but that is the general way of things.

R.A.F aka the raf is the Royal Air Force

It was a bit strange watching this as I grew up in Crawley which is right next to Gatwick and now live in Redhill which is the other side of Gatwick! I just can't escape that plane noise 😂 I used to cycle up to Gatwick as a child and just explore 😮

Unusually, I’m staying near Heathrow right now - near the river Thames, with its local wildlife: swans, ducks, owls and parakeets. Early in the morning, you open your windows to the fresh air - and the dumping of fuel by the planes overhead (together with the sound of the new Netflix TV studios being built on acres and acres of former pristine farmland, never to be seen again rolling down to the river banks. It’s not a Tardis. The buildings are massive grey Nazi-style bunkers that really match the local ambience by blocking out the daylight).

Can we have part 2 soon??

Watch a video about all the underground tube stations especially the did used ones

I believe Gatwick is for more local flights to Europe etc, while Heathrow are more international flights all over the globe.

Why? For a variety of reasons. 20 million people is one reason. Also remember that London Stansted, London Luton, London Southend, Farnborough, London Gatwick are nowhere near London, they are just called “London”. Only London City is near London, ie. you could walk to the City. Both Heathrow and Northolt are still a fair distance from London. After you operate into these airports it doesn’t take you long to realise they are managed and run by wankers. The reality is Heathrow is the only airport has a large number and variety of connections which is why it is so popular (It;s still a really shitty airport). The rest are just termini of parking and shopping concessions who offer point-to-point flights.

Because this is the hub. Graphically we are perfect for stops and starts.p

Always makes me laugh when they talk about "London Luton". Luton is a LONG way from London. Stansted isnt that near either

On two separate subjects have you ever been to the New Forest? Also u should do a video on the euro star or the channel tunnel....