Originally Posted by
LEGAL TENDER
so would that mean that when they are on "easterly operations" they take off and land with the pointy bit towards East?
Yes.
What if the wind is neither westerly or easterly?
Any wind direction can be resolved into a headwind/tailwind component and a crosswind component.
It's the former that determines whether Heathrow operates on easterlies or westerlies, subject to a set of rules that define the preferential direction depending on the time of day/night:
http://www.heathrow.com/file_source/...Arrivals11.pdf