[thinkingemote]

in Google Earth it says it was taken 10/04/2020

1. That was during the first corona lockdown. In that case, the airport would mostly be closed. However news reports say that the airports were kind of open with some flights flying during lockdown (massively reduced - 60 vs 600)

2. Looking at the date gives another clue. April 10 is Good Friday, the Friday before Easter weekend. Good Friday is a big national "bank holiday" when most things are shut in the UK. Therefore even less flights that day.

[warner25]

But if the airplanes weren't flying, they would be parked on the ground somewhere. So where are all the airplanes in your theory? There are zero in parking.

[thinkingemote]

I have heard that the parking charges at Heathrow and the major hub airports are very expensive. Companies do not park their planes for longer than necessary (e.g. getting passengers on and off) during normal times.

Given this, one would imagine the planes going any place cheaper during that time.

I agree, not seeing any planes at all on the ground looks strange and exceptional. It was an exceptional time. Maybe they made a composite image?

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A very quick search about this fact showed the following (I'm sure someone would be able to fully investigate and find better and more accurate data with more time)

"However, with aircraft parking charges at major European airports often exceeding £200 per hour for the largest airframes, less expensive storage sites were required"

Grounded aircraft: An airfield operations perspective of the challenges of resuming flights post COVID

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096969972...

Note that this article says that Heathrow did have some planes on the ground in May of 2020 (only a month later but outside of peak lockdown).

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"Aircraft on ground" which might just refer to broken planes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_on_ground

"$10,000 to $20,000 and possibly even as high as $150,000 per hour"