Heathrow turns the sky into poetry
Heathrow celebrates its 80th anniversary with an initiative designed for those flying over London: a poem written in large letters on a field near the airport, readable only by arriving or departing passengers. The work, entitled "Gateway to the World", is signed by the British poet David Larbi, appointed the first Poet-in-Residence of the London airport.
The initiative anticipates the anniversary of the airport's first flight, which took place on May 31, 1946, when Heathrow was still known as London Airport. Since then, the airport has become one of the main global hubs, with almost 3 billion passengers transited and over 22 million flights operated in eight decades.
To create the poem, David Larbi visited the airport, met over 30 people who work in the different operational areas and collected stories related to the daily life of the airport. The lyrics celebrate Heathrow as a gateway to the world, a place of departures, returns, encounters and international connections.
For passengers, poetry becomes part of the travel experience: not a work to be read in the terminal, but a message visible from above, the moment the plane approaches or leaves London. The installation was carried out in the field of the Bedfont Primary School with biodegradable and ecological paint, destined to disappear within a few weeks.
Heathrow closed 2025 with 84.5 million passengers and today connects 230 destinations in over 80 countries. The most popular destinations in the airport's history are New York, Dublin, Amsterdam and Paris, confirming the airport's role as a strategic hub for tourism, business travel and intercontinental connections.
The history of Heathrow also accompanies some symbolic moments of British aviation and culture. The airport has welcomed historic arrivals, such as that of the Beatles in 1964, and participated in the evolution of air travel with the launch of the Concorde's supersonic passenger flights in 1976.
Today, Heathrow welcomes over 200,000 passengers a day with around 1,300 daily flights. More than 80,000 people work at the airport, including airport staff, airlines, handlers, retailers and operating partners, contributing every day to the management of one of the most connected airports in the world.
The 80th anniversary celebrations also include other initiatives dedicated to Travellers, including installations in the terminals with archival images, commemorative products, special offers in shops and restaurants, and competitions with 80 prizes up for grabs.
With "Gateway to the World", Heathrow chooses to tell its anniversary through the language of poetry and the emotion of travel. An original way to remember that an airport is not only an infrastructure, but also a place where millions of personal stories begin, end or depart for new destinations.
David Larbi
He is a London writer, creator, and poet. Through experimentation with different platforms and forms of expression, she has built an online community based on introspection and emotional connection. She has a deep love of words and wants anyone who encounters her work to come away with a positive feeling.
