Codes & reference data
London airport codes
Heathrow (LHR), Gatwick (LGW), Stansted (STN), Luton (LTN), London City (LCY) and Southend (SEN) — what each code means, who flies where, how far each really is from central London, and how the LON code searches all six.
Published 4 October 2026 · Updated 4 October 2026
London has six airports that sell themselves as “London”, and only two of them are actually in London. Their codes:
- LHR — Heathrow
- LGW — Gatwick
- STN — Stansted
- LTN — Luton
- LCY — London City
- SEN — Southend
On top of those sits LON, a city code that belongs to no airport and searches all six at once. The general rules behind codes like these are in airport codes explained; this page is the London detail.
How far each one really is
| IATA | ICAO | Airport | From Charing Cross | In LON? | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LCY | EGLC | London City Airport | 13 km 8 mi | Yes | Look up |
| LHR | EGLL | London Heathrow Airport | 23 km 15 mi | Yes | Airport page |
| LGW | EGKK | London Gatwick Airport | 40 km 25 mi | Yes | Airport page |
| LTN | EGGW | London Luton Airport | 44 km 27 mi | Yes | Look up |
| STN | EGSS | London Stansted Airport | 49 km 30 mi | Yes | Look up |
| SEN | EGMC | London Southend Airport | 57 km 36 mi | Yes | Look up |
Straight-line (geodesic) distance from Charing Cross to each airport's reference point, computed from the same OurAirports coordinates as the rest of this site. Road and rail journeys are longer.
The spread is the point. London City is a short hop from the centre; Stansted and Southend are well out into Essex, and Luton is in Bedfordshire. All six are marketed as London, and a fare to “London” can land you at any of them.
Heathrow (LHR) — the hub
Heathrow is London’s largest airport and the main hub for British Airways. Nearly all long-haul flights to London from North America, Asia and the Middle East arrive here, along with most full-service European carriers.
Its ICAO code is EGLL. UK ICAO codes begin with EG, so London’s airports all share that prefix:
EGKK Gatwick, EGSS Stansted, EGGW Luton, EGLC London City, EGMC Southend.
The Heathrow airport page has its coordinates, time zone and the routes covered from it, such as New York JFK to Heathrow.
Gatwick (LGW) — the second airport
Gatwick, south of the city in West Sussex, is London’s second-busiest airport. It handles a mix of short-haul low-cost flying — it is a major easyJet base — and leisure long-haul, plus some British Airways services.
Heathrow and Gatwick are roughly 40 km apart in a straight line. They are not interchangeable on the day, and the distance matters a great deal if a connection involves both (see below).
See the Gatwick airport page.
Stansted (STN) and Luton (LTN) — the low-cost airports
Stansted, northeast of London in Essex, is Ryanair’s main UK base. Luton, to the north, is heavily used by easyJet and Wizz Air. Both handle almost entirely short-haul European and leisure flying.
These are the airports behind most surprisingly cheap “London” fares, and the reason to read the airport code, not just the city, before you book. Both sit more than 40 km from the centre in a straight line, and the onward journey costs time and money a headline fare does not show.
Luton is also the clearest case of a code following a town rather than a city: LTN is Luton, and the
airport’s own name has “London” bolted on.
London City (LCY) — close in, small aircraft
London City is in the Docklands, much closer to the centre than any other London airport. Its short runway restricts it to smaller aircraft, so it serves mostly short business routes to European cities.
It is the one London airport where the “London” in the name is fully earned.
Southend (SEN) — the furthest
Southend, in Essex at the mouth of the Thames, is the smallest of the six and the furthest from central London in the table above. Its code comes from the town, Southend-on-Sea.
The LON city code
LON is an IATA metropolitan area code. Searching for it returns flights at all six airports,
which is useful for comparing fares and frustrating if you assumed every result meant Heathrow.
Check the airport on every result. A LON search can happily pair an outbound from Heathrow with a
return into Stansted — fine if you meant it, a problem if your onward plans assume otherwise. The
broader point about city codes versus airport codes is in
airport codes explained.
Connecting between London airports
Flights that arrive at one London airport and depart from another are not a connection in the airline sense. Heathrow to Gatwick, the most common pairing, is a cross-country journey by road or rail; to Stansted it is further still — around 66 km in a straight line.
On a single ticket, the airline that sold you the itinerary is responsible for it. On separate tickets it is a self-transfer, and if the first flight runs late, the second one leaves without you. Allow far more time than a same-airport minimum connection time suggests — that figure is published for one airport and means nothing across two.
Which airport is “London” on your itinerary?
- Long-haul from outside Europe: almost certainly Heathrow, sometimes Gatwick.
- British Airways: mostly Heathrow, with some Gatwick and London City.
- Ryanair: usually Stansted.
- easyJet or Wizz Air: often Gatwick or Luton.
- Short business trip to a European city: London City is worth checking.
The rule that matters more than any of these: read the three-letter code, not the word “London”. Every London airport has a different code, and the code is what decides where you actually land.
Staying near a London airport
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