Inside London's helicopter wars: How the skies became a fast lane for the rich
Battersea residents are fed up with private helicopters — and a lack of accountability
Morning — picture this: you've just landed back in London after a holiday. But instead of slogging your luggage onto the Heathrow Express, or getting stuck in traffic on the M25, you're whisked away by helicopter. A short ride later, you've touched down on a helipad by the Thames in Battersea. And would you look at that: there's a garage with supercars for rent down the road.
Well, for a lucky few, such a shuttle service is a reality, courtesy of London Heliport. "For business or pleasure, travel in luxury, anywhere, any time," is its motto. While air ambulances and police occasionally use the heliport, the vast majority of fliers are private users. Demand is apparently high during Wimbledon, Royal Ascot and the F1 at Silverstone. It's also a hit with paparazzi, given its celebrity clientele. Like Tom Cruise, who landed at the heliport with Ana de Armas earlier this month for the UK premiere of the new Mission Impossible film.
The heliport is less of a hit with another group, though: the neighbours. London Heliport first opened in 1959, back when Battersea was industrial. But in the decades since, thousands of residents have moved in. The heliport is now encircled by flats.
And with the complaints piling up, London Heliport has had enough.
Our look at the row over helicopters in central London is below.
'We're fed waffle and bullshit': The row over London Heliport
By the Spy
The bosses of London Heliport have finally snapped. After years of complaints and council meetings, they’ve walked out of the public oversight group meant to hold them accountable.
But the move isn't just business — it's personal. London Heliport’s gripes centre around one man: Fulham resident Tom Farrand.
"The management are really unhappy with me," says Farrand, who lives in a riverside flat opposite the heliport. "They've labelled me as a 'vexatious complainant'."
The Spy is talking to Farrand a week before what would turn out to be an explosive meeting between London Heliport's management, borough councillors and resident representatives on May 14.
Farrand is one of those representatives, having been tipped for the role by his local councillor two years ago.
He doesn't think much of the heliport's clientele.
"It's moneyed people who don't want to sit in traffic, basically," Farrand says. "They don't want to get normal transport in London. They fly their private jets, then get a helicopter here, then they get a chauffeur into Knightsbridge or wherever they reside."
But Will Curtis, the managing director of London Heliport, doesn't think much of Farrand either. "He makes countless completely pointless objections," said Curtis at the May 14 meeting.
"I don't want a residents' representative who phones the airport 30 times in a day to complain about aircraft. It's not helpful."
The London Heliport Consultative Group, as it’s known officially, was set up in 2015 to address a problem: increasing tensions between a heliport in Battersea serving the super-rich, and its neighbours on the ground.
The group is run by Wandsworth council — where the heliport is based — but councillors from Hammersmith & Fulham and Kensington & Chelsea also turn up, as they have residents who live under helicopter flight paths.
For ten years these councillors have been caught in the middle of two warring sides.
On the one hand is London Heliport, which first opened in 1959, back when the surrounding area was light-industrial. "We were here first," is a common refrain from its management.
On the other are residents, who've been moving into the redeveloped power stations and glassy towers that have been popping up around Battersea in recent years.
But in 2025, it's clear the arrangement has failed to calm things down.
"It's become quite heated," says Jenny Scott-Thompson, another resident representative on the group who spoke with the Spy. "There's some history and resentment on both sides."
"There's quite a lot of — what I would call — waffle and bullshit coming from the management and from the operators," says Farrand.
"The way these meetings have been run I'm afraid is just not acceptable to us. It doesn't work for us," said Curtis at the May 14 meeting.
And now, tensions have really boiled over — the May 14 meeting of the group will be its last.
Or, at least, the last where London Heliport management actually turns up.
They’ve decided they’re going to start their own group — one held behind closed doors, with restrictions on who can come.
Farrand is banned, for now.
And there's one specific moment where the relationship seems to have unravelled.
The events and aftermath of a sunny weekend in 2023.
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