Airport guide · the group organiser’s briefing
Coach & group travel at Heathrow
LHR · EGLL · West London
The full West Ramp Coach Park permit flow — booking, holding, dispatch and the exact stand at each terminal.
The Heathrow coach pick-up playbook
This is the piece official pages scatter across five places. Every charter coach collecting a group from a Heathrow forecourt must report to the West Ramp Coach Park (WRCP) first, on a pre-booked permit. Miss the booking and, at capacity, you are turned away. Here is the whole flow — permit, holding, dispatch, the twenty-minute stand — with the exact bay your driver pulls onto at each terminal.
Pre-book
Book the permit + forecourt slot online. Supply vehicle reg, operator, flight number and collection time. Card only — cash is no longer accepted.
Report to WRCP
All forecourt collections route via the West Ramp Coach Park first. Park no earlier than 30 minutes before your collection time.
Hold & wait
Wait in the drivers’ rest room until the Coach Marshal calls you forward — never more than 10 minutes before your slot.
Dispatch to stand
The marshal sends you to the terminal stand once the group is ready. In peak season, T5 routes via the Forward Coach Park.
Load — 20 min
Maximum 20 minutes on stand to load. Permit displayed in the windscreen; the forecourt is patrolled by police and traffic control.
| Terminal | Coach stand | Meet your group |
|---|---|---|
| T2 | Arrivals forecourt (ground level), lane 3, bus stops 13–14 | Opposite the international arrivals exit |
| T3 | Arrivals forecourt, bus stops 9–10 | Ground-floor seating area at Arrivals |
| T4 | Arrivals forecourt (ground level), lane 3, bus stops 18–19 | Beside WHSmith in Arrivals, ground floor |
| T5 | Arrivals forecourt (ground level), lane 1, bus stops 16–16B | North point opposite Travelex / South point near Costa Coffee |
“We pre-book the permit before every Heathrow collection and hold in the coach park until the marshal calls us — so your group is met the moment they clear customs, not left on a stand where a coach can wait twenty minutes.”— Airport Coaches · first-person operational note
Out of hours
WRCP is manned 06:00–22:00, 365 days a year (including Christmas Day). Out of hours: coaches collecting before 06:00 or after 22:30 may go straight to the terminal without a permit — but late-pickup coaches should not arrive before 22:15, and the 20-minute forecourt limit still applies.
What you need to book
- Vehicle registration number
- Operating company name (and the operator you are working on behalf of, if applicable)
- Flight number being met
- Scheduled group collection time
Drivers' rest room and Control Office at WRCP. (The T5 Forward Coach Park, used in peak season, has no refreshment facility and limited toilets.)
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Getting a group through Heathrow?
Every flight monitored. Every group met.
We run the WRCP permit, hold at the coach park and meet your party on the stand — so a delayed flight never means a missed pick-up.
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