hi allcan anyone tell me what this means when ATC say this to other ac at the airport.i presume it could be that the ac is doing a visual approach and thus on short finals, i was told from a first officer who flies for Virgin Blue that in Australia all flights at night have to be ILs approach and that you have more flight to do as you have to intercept be on final from 10+ NM out,any comments from real pilots / ATC?rgds

Yes, language can be misleading. "Aircraft on short final" means that the aircraft is very close to landing on the active runway. This would apply to either a VFR or IFR flight. Some of the times it would be used are:Your on downwind (VFR) and tower saids " NXXXXX do you have your traffic"? You say no. Tower replies that "the aircraft you are following is on short final".You are waiting to take off and tower saids. "Hold short of the active runway, aircraft on short final".You are following another aircraft for landing (visual approach). Tower saids to you "follow the aircraft ahead on short final".There maybe a few other times you would hear this but it means that traffic is very close to landing.Regards,Ed

Aircraft appraching Heathrow (EGLL) normally are under Radar Control from the various holding points to a point where they can make a straight-in approach.When, for example, aircraft were landing on Runways 27R & L, the terms short and long finals were used to reference that point - short meant it was over Westminster, long meant it was further east over Docklands.