Easterly vs westerly operations: what they mean for your street

"Easterly operations" and "westerly operations" are airport shorthand, usually heard as the explanation for why the planes have moved. They stand for one simple rule, and once you know it you can predict which side of the airport will be loud tomorrow.

What the terms mean

Planes take off and land into the wind. At an airport whose runways run east to west, that leaves two ways of operating, named after the wind:

• Westerly operations. The wind is from the west. Planes land and take off towards the west, so they arrive over the area east of the airport and leave over the area to the west.
• Easterly operations. The wind is from the east. Everything reverses: planes arrive over the area west of the airport and leave over the east.

The runway numbers say the same thing. A runway is numbered after its compass heading in tens of degrees, so runway 27 points towards about 270°, roughly west, and runway 09 towards about 090°, roughly east. "Landing on 27" means westerly operations. Where there are two parallel runways, they are told apart by L and R, for left and right.

How often each happens

Westerly is the usual direction in the UK, because the wind usually comes from the west. By their own figures, about 70% of flights go in the westerly direction at Heathrow and at Gatwick, and the same is true at Frankfurt. At Heathrow, the airport stays westerly by day in light easterly winds, up to 5 knots, because a westerly preference has applied there since the 1960s to limit take-offs towards the east over London.

Counted by days, the split looks like this over the year to 28 September 2026, from our recordings:

Stansted and Manchester point south-west to north-east, so their equivalent phrases are south-westerly and north-easterly operations; the rule is the same.

Easterly days do not arrive evenly. They come in spells of days or weeks, and not only in winter: at Heathrow, April, July and January had the most last year, with around four days in ten each. A street under the easterly approach can go weeks with few planes, then have them every day for a spell. Heathrow publishes the monthly split between the two directions on its operational data page.

What it means east and west of the airport

The rule of thumb is simple. Under the extended runway line, landings are the problem: they come in low, one after another, on the same straight line. Take-offs climb much faster and spread onto several routes, so away from the airport they are higher and more spread out.

At Heathrow, westerly days bring landings over Fulham, Putney, Chiswick, Kew, the Sheens, Isleworth and Hounslow, with planes around 1,800 ft over Kew. Take-offs head towards Windsor, and most carry on west or turn south over Egham. On easterly days, landings come in over Clewer on the edge of Windsor, Datchet and Horton, at about 1,100 ft over Datchet, and take-offs leave over Hounslow and Twickenham, splitting towards Hampton Hill, Ealing and the east. Our sample report for Kew Green counts 92 loud landings a day with westerly winds and 4 loud flights a day with easterly winds.

Easterly days at Heathrow also differ in another way. On westerly days, landings alternate between the two runways, so the streets under each approach get half a day's break. On easterly days nearly all landings use the northern runway, 95% last year, all day, because works needed for easterly alternation have not yet been built. Runway alternation explained has the details.

At Gatwick, westerly days bring landings from the east over Burstow, Outwood, Lingfield and Dormansland, about 1,850 ft up over Lingfield. Most take-offs head west past Capel. On easterly days, landings come in from the west over Rusper, Newdigate, Capel and Ockley, around 1,800 ft over Ockley, and take-offs head east. Capel is an example of a village that hears planes either way: climbing take-offs on westerly days and lower landings on easterly ones.

At London City, westerly days bring landings from the east over Thamesmead, Belvedere and Rainham. On easterly days they come in from the west over the Isle of Dogs, Stepney and Whitechapel, at about 1,350 ft over the Isle of Dogs. Take-offs turn away to the north or north-east: towards Wanstead on westerly days, and towards Dagenham or Gants Hill on easterly ones.

How to tell which is in use

• Look up. Landing planes descend steadily in a straight line towards the runway with their wheels down. If they are coming in from the east, the airport is on westerly operations.
• Check the runway number. Flight trackers and airport data show the runway in use. At an east-west airport, 27 (or 26, 25) means westerly, 09 (or 08, 07) easterly.
• Check the wind. A west wind means westerly operations. At Heathrow, only an east wind of more than 5 knots, about 6 mph, turns the airport round by day. Gatwick's controllers also look at the forecast for the next four to six hours before deciding.
• Replay the day. Our free flight map shows every landing and take-off, so you can see which way the airport was working today, or on any recent day.

Planning around it

If you are thinking of moving near an airport, find out which direction brings planes over the street and how often it is in use. A house that is quiet on westerly days may still be under the easterly approach for more than a quarter of the year, in spells. Visit on a day with the wind that sends the planes over it; viewing a house near an airport explains how. And if you already live there, the wind forecast is a fair guide to which days you will want the windows shut.