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London Airport (LHR) — Direct Flights, USD Fares | United Kingdom

LHR London airport: 12 catalogued routes, hub for BA, VS. USD fares, schedules, carrier comparison.

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🇬🇧 LHR
airport Fact-checked USD-first
CE Written by CheapFlightsAfrica Editorial Team · Updated May 2026 · 5 min read
London (LHR) — African diaspora corridor airport to UK, USA, Canada, Australia, photo via Wikimedia Commons
Photo of London (LHR) — African diaspora corridor airport to UK, USA, Canada, Australia · CC BY-SA 3.0 by Ilya Grigorik · source

Domestic only · Connect via Johannesburg or Addis Ababa

LHR has no direct international flights.

Most passengers from London connect via O.R. Tambo (JNB) or Bole (ADD) for international routes. Aviasales finds the cheapest connection live.

View LHR → world via JNB Thanks for the diaspora support — safe travels home. Affiliate link · how this earns Johannesburg international → Thanks for the diaspora support — safe travels home. Affiliate link · how this earns
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Heathrow (LHR, ICAO EGLL) serves London, United Kingdom and is a destination reached by travellers flying from across Africa. It is the based hub of British Airways, Virgin Atlantic. Our catalogue links 0 direct destinations out of LHR and 12 African origins into it, served by 9 carriers.

At a glance

12 catalogued corridors touch London (LHR / EGLL) in the United Kingdom: 0 outbound and 12 inbound, flown by 9 carriers, with British Airways and Virgin Atlantic based here. 7 of those corridors carry a cached USD quote in our fare file; the rest are catalogued on schedule evidence alone.

AttributeDetail
IATA / ICAOLHR / EGLL
CityLondon
CountryUnited Kingdom
Based hub carriersBritish Airways, Virgin Atlantic
Direct destinations (catalogued)0
Reached from (African origins)12
Coordinates51.471, -0.462

The route mix at LHR splits into 1 short sector under four hours, 4 medium sectors of four to seven hours and 7 long-haul sectors beyond seven — a profile that tells you what the terminal is actually built around. 10 of the corridors here are flagged in our data as labour-migration or diaspora routes, where checked-baggage terms drive booking decisions more than schedule does.

Two codes, two uses. LHR is the IATA code you will see on a ticket, a baggage tag and a departure board, while EGLL is the ICAO code used in flight plans, NOTAMs and air-traffic filing. They are not interchangeable: IATA codes are reused across the world’s smaller fields and are the ones that cause mis-booking, which is why every corridor on this site is keyed on the pair of codes rather than a city name.

Airlines serving LHR

9 carriers appear on the LHR corridors catalogued here, 9 of them with a row in our carrier file, recording checked-baggage baselines from 23 kg to 30 kg, and 8 of those rows sit inside a global alliance (Oneworld 3, Star Alliance 3, SkyTeam 2). A blank cell means no recorded value, not a zero.

These carriers operate the LHR corridors catalogued on this site. Heathrow is the based hub of British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, which anchors most of its schedule and connecting bank.

AirlineAllianceChecked baggageHajj/Umrah charter
British Airways (BA)Oneworld23 kgNo
EgyptAir (MS)Star Alliance23 kgYes
Royal Air Maroc (AT)Oneworld23 kgYes
Virgin Atlantic (VS)SkyTeam23 kgNo
South African Airways (SA)Star Alliance23 kgNo
RwandAir (WB)None23 kgNo
Qatar Airways (QR)Oneworld30 kgYes
Kenya Airways (KQ)SkyTeam23 kgNo
Ethiopian Airlines (ET)Star Alliance23 kgYes

Alliance spread decides how easily a disruption at LHR gets fixed. With 3 Oneworld carriers, 3 Star Alliance carriers, 2 SkyTeam carriers on these corridors, a passenger stuck here can sometimes be reflowed onto a partner without a new ticket — but only within the same alliance, and only when the original ticket permits it. Between alliances, re-accommodation is a commercial favour rather than an entitlement.

Top routes into LHR

10/10 is the highest demand score on any LHR corridor in our catalogue — Johannesburg to London (JNB–LHR), about 35 flights a week on BA, VS and SA. Demand score is this catalogue’s own 1-10 editorial rating across 12 corridors at LHR, not a passenger count from a civil-aviation authority.

Sorted by demand; the USD market-low column is the cheapest fare our cache has seen on the corridor across all carriers.

RouteCarriersFreq/wkBlock (h)Market low (USD)
Johannesburg (JNB) → London (LHR)BA, VS, SA~35~11.5
Lagos (LOS) → London (LHR)BA, VS~14~6.5$477
Cape Town (CPT) → London (LHR)BA, VS, SA~7~11.5$456
Cairo (CAI) → London (LHR)MS, BA~14~5.0
Nairobi (NBO) → London (LHR)BA, KQ~14~8.5$351
Accra (ACC) → London (LHR)BA~7~6.7$624
Harare (HRE) → London (LHR)BA, VS~4~10.5$531
Casablanca (CMN) → London (LHR)AT~7~3.5
Abuja (ABV) → London (LHR)BA, VS~7~6.5$428
Entebbe (EBB) → London (LHR)BA~7~8.5$494
Addis Ababa (ADD) → London (LHR)ET, BA~7~7.5
Kigali (KGL) → London (LHR)WB, QR~7~10.5

Three corridors carry roughly 48% of the 130 weekly departures our catalogue records at LHR, which makes the airport two different places depending on which flight you hold. Dense routes absorb disruption within the day. Thin ones do not, and rebooking onto another airline needs an interline agreement rather than goodwill.

Corridors and typical fares from LHR

7 of the 12 LHR corridors carry a cached USD quote, the lowest at $351. Fares are quoted in USD across the whole site so corridors from different African markets stay comparable. Sector length drives the shape: 1 run under four hours, 4 four to seven and 7 beyond seven.

Most LHR corridors here serve diaspora and long-haul family travellers. The mix is 1 short intra-Africa hop (under 4 h), 4 medium Gulf-range sectors (4–7 h), 7 long-haul routes (over 7 h). 10 are labour-migration or diaspora corridors where extra-baggage allowances matter. USD fares vary by corridor — intra-Africa typically $400–900, Gulf hubs $500–1,200, long-haul $800–2,200; each per-route guide below carries live cached fares.

CorridorCached low (USD)Cheapest month seen
NBO-LHR$351$351 in Jul 2026
ABV-LHR$428$429 in Aug 2026
CPT-LHR$456$416 in Oct 2026
LOS-LHR$477$382 in Jul 2026
EBB-LHR$494$494 in Jul 2026
HRE-LHR$531$519 in Jul 2026
ACC-LHR$624$537 in Sep 2026

The shape of the fare curve follows the sector length. The 1 short corridor under four hours from LHR price like regional traffic and move mostly with the day of the week; the 7 long-haul corridors beyond seven hours move with season and school holidays, and can double between the cheapest and dearest month in our own cache. Mixing the two on one average would be meaningless, which is why every corridor page carries its own floor.

Direct flights to LHR — 12 routes

12 catalogued routes are listed below for LHR, reaching 10 countries, led by South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana. Our catalogue records 0 departure and 12 arrival corridors at LHR, each linking to a corridor guide with carriers, frequency, block time and any cached fare.

Every entry leads to a corridor page with the same skeleton of facts: who flies it, how often, how long the nonstop sector is scheduled to take, how far apart the two airports actually are, and what our fare cache has recorded. Routing and carrier decide the trip; the fare only decides between equivalents.

The list covers this site’s catalogue, not the airport’s timetable. We add corridors where there is a real audience among African travellers — diaspora, pilgrim, intra-Africa and business traffic — so a seasonal charter or a thin regional service out of London may be missing even though it operates. A blank fare means no cached quote rather than no service.

Hub airlines based at LHR

2 carriers base an operation at London (LHR): British Airways (BA), on 10 catalogued corridors and Virgin Atlantic (VS), on 5 catalogued corridors. A based carrier is where the airport’s recovery capacity lives. Across the 12 corridors catalogued at LHR, a based operation is what makes a same-day recovery realistic; an outstation carrier usually has one rotation and no local engineering.

British Airways, Virgin Atlantic

Hub status is operational, not marketing. A carrier that bases aircraft and crew at LHR builds connecting banks around it, holds spare capacity there, and can usually re-crew or swap metal the same day. The same airline at an outstation typically has one rotation and no local engineering, so an identical technical fault produces a two-hour delay at the hub and an overnight at the outstation.

It also shapes price. The based carrier usually sets the fare level on corridors out of London and competitors price against it, which is why a hub airport is rarely the cheapest place to originate on its own home routes. Where our cache shows an unusually low floor at LHR, it is normally a competing carrier buying share rather than the hub carrier discounting.

FAQ

How is LHR airport connected? LHR (London) is reachable on 12 direct routes in our catalogue — see the full route list above.

What are the IATA and ICAO codes for LHR airport? The IATA code is LHR and the ICAO code is EGLL. The airport serves London, United Kingdom.

Which airlines are based at LHR? Hub carriers at LHR: BA, VS.

How can I check fares and schedules for routes through LHR? Each route in the list above links to a guide with live USD fares, weekly frequency and the airlines that operate it.

Which airlines fly from LHR? Carriers on LHR corridors catalogued here: British Airways, EgyptAir, Royal Air Maroc, Virgin Atlantic, South African Airways, RwandAir, Qatar Airways, Kenya Airways. See the airlines table above for alliance and baggage.

What is the cheapest flight from LHR? In our fare cache the lowest market fare out of LHR is about $351 on Nairobi–London (NBO-LHR). Fares move with season — check live prices on the route guide.

1 related page follow. Each is linked because it shares an endpoint, a carrier, a country or an audience cluster with this one — the annotations say what each adds, so the ones that do not apply to your trip can be skipped.

  • Flights to United Kingdom — country landing page: 13 catalogued corridors from African airports, carriers, visa row and the USD fare floor we have on file.

Internal links on this site are placed from the data, not from a keyword list: a corridor is linked when it shares an origin, a destination, a carrier or an audience cluster with the page you are on. If a link above looks unrelated to your trip, it probably shares a carrier or a hub rather than a destination.

Corridor pages carry the per-route detail — carriers, weekly frequency, scheduled block time, great-circle distance and whatever the fare cache holds. Airport pages carry the full catalogued route list at that field, the based hub carriers and the compensation regime of the country it sits in. Carrier pages carry the baggage baseline, alliance and the network as this catalogue records it.

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About CheapFlightsAfrica Editorial Team

CheapFlightsAfrica is a pan-African editorial team covering outbound diaspora chains to the UK/AU/CA/USA, Hajj and Umrah logistics from Nigeria/South Africa/Kenya/Ghana, intra-Africa hub routing through Johannesburg/Nairobi/Addis Ababa, and Gulf transit via Dubai and Doha. Every article is written at one desk and verified at another. Published under a single team byline. Meet the editorial team and read our standards.

Updated May 2026

Notice: Fares, visa rules and Hajj quotas change frequently. Verify everything with the airline, SACAA/NCAA/KCAA/GCAA or the relevant Hajj board (NAHCON/SAHUC/KAHCON/GHC) before booking.