Head of Capacity

Heathrow is a city within a city, through which millions of passengers travel every year. In Operational Planning, our goal is to give passengers the best airport service in the world, in an environment where change is constant. Join us and you’ll become part of an exciting and fast-paced team that keeps the airport running smoothly. Whether it's using data and strategy to predict and plan for events, responding to unexpected disruptions, or working closely with Airport Operations Control and airlines to optimise flight schedules and reduce delays, you’ll make a real difference to the experience of countless passengers.

Together, we’re responsible for creating the right planning proposition, from defining roles to building rosters, and delivering an effective plan every day. It’s about understanding our capacity and making best use of it. And about evaluating our performance every day, so we can continuously improve. Every day will test your skills and give you the opportunity to make your mark at one of the busiest airports in the world. Join us and discover a one-of-a-kind career.

At Heathrow, we’re on a mission to make every journey better, and capacity planning is at the heart of that ambition. As Head of Capacity, you’ll play a pivotal role in ensuring our airport operates efficiently today while preparing for the demands of tomorrow. This is a senior leadership position where your decisions will directly influence how millions of passengers experience Heathrow every year. You’ll lead a team dedicated to optimising how we use our existing infrastructure and identifying opportunities to unlock additional capacity. Success in this role means balancing operational resilience with growth, working closely with airline partners, project teams, and internal stakeholders to deliver solutions that keep Heathrow moving smoothly and sustainably.

Your role will involve:

• Developing and implementing strategies to maximise the use of existing airport capacity across terminals, airfield, and security operations.
• Leading engagement with airlines to understand their operational needs and align capacity planning with commercial and passenger experience goals.
• Overseeing analysis of bottlenecks and designing solutions, including business cases for infrastructure changes such as security lane adjustments or airfield layout improvements.
• Collaborating with project teams on major initiatives like baggage system upgrades and terminal optimisation to ensure capacity considerations are embedded from the start.
• Monitoring performance against capacity plans, reporting on key metrics and driving continuous improvement initiatives.

These Skills Are Essential:

• Demonstrable experience in capacity planning, operational strategy, or infrastructure optimisation within a complex organisation.
• Strong leadership and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence senior leaders and drive collaboration across multiple teams.
• Knowledge of how data, analytics, modelling, automation, and AI can be leveraged to improve business performance and decision-making.
• Proven track record of leading large-scale change initiatives, transformation programmes, or complex cross-functional projects.
• Experience developing, evaluating, and presenting compelling business cases to support operational and infrastructure investment decisions.
• Expertise in capacity planning, scheduling, resource optimisation, and balancing demand against organisational capability and priorities.

Ideal Skills:

• Background in aviation, transport, or large-scale infrastructure projects.
• Knowledge of regulatory requirements and industry best practices related to airport operations.

There’s something so special about working at the world’s most iconic airport. Its sights. Its sounds. Its constant air of excitement. Heathrow is an amazing backdrop to a career filled with unique opportunities. Every day, you’ll discover a world full of fresh possibilities and end the day buzzing with stories to tell, as you encounter people from all cultures, nationalities and experiences. A world full of pride for what we do and no end of exciting career prospects to explore. It brings out the best in all of us. And inspires everyone to deliver on our ambitious plans. Together, we’re working to welcome millions more passengers while ensuring aviation can continue to be a force for good by leading global efforts in sustainability. Join us on that journey and we'll help you achieve your ambitions too. Supporting you to learn, encouraging you to be yourself, backing you to achieve more than you might ever have imagined. Because there’s no place like Heathrow.

We offer competitive salaries and excellent benefits that will support you now and in the future. As well as performance-based annual bonuses and our longer-term Share in Success Bonus plans, we also offer generous annual leave allowances and market-leading pensions. With family friendly policies, access to private health insurance and a wide range of wellbeing tools, we’ll support you to be at your best inside and outside work. And of course, we’ll provide varied learning and development opportunities too. Here you’ll find everything you need for a fulfilling career journey that can take you in exciting directions.

Our Hybrid working approach offers the opportunity for colleagues in some roles to work from home for an average of two days a week, providing the flexibility to work in an agile way whilst ensuring we deliver for the operational needs of Heathrow. Working arrangements vary from team to team and will be confirmed during the recruitment process. You’ll need to be based in the UK and within a commutable distance to Heathrow.

As an equal opportunities employer, we encourage applications from all. We believe that diverse talent makes us stronger – not least because we welcome passengers from all corners of the globe, every single day. Heathrow is an accessible place to work. With five diversity networks, we champion inclusivity and celebrate individuality.