Definition
An air traffic control procedure in which a landing aircraft is instructed to land and stop short of an intersecting runway, an intersecting taxiway, or some other designated point on a runway. LAHSO is used to increase airport capacity by allowing operations on intersecting or converging runways to occur simultaneously, while still maintaining required separation. Pilot acceptance of a LAHSO clearance is required before the aircraft is committed to the procedure, and the pilot must be able to stop the aircraft within the published Available Landing Distance (ALD).
Plain English
A clearance from the tower that tells you to land on a runway and bring your aircraft to a stop before reaching a specific point — usually before another runway or taxiway crosses yours. You only accept it if you are sure you can stop in the distance available.
Context Anchor
You may hear LAHSO in a landing clearance from a control tower, especially at busy airports using more than one runway.
Derivation
The name describes the action: 'land' the aircraft, then 'hold short' of a specified point. 'Hold short' is standard ATC phrasing meaning to stop and wait before crossing a particular line on the airport surface.
Why Pilots Care
It safely increases the number of takeoffs and landings an airport can handle each hour by letting two runways operate together.
Intuition Check
Do not read LAHSO as simply “make a short landing.” It means you are accepting a specific stopping limit, and you must stop before that assigned point.
Example Sentence 1
Tower issued a LAHSO clearance to land on Runway 27 and hold short of Runway 33, and the pilot read it back after confirming the Available Landing Distance was sufficient.
Example Sentence 2
During recurrent training the instructor had us practice LAHSO landings so we could judge our actual stopping distance under different wind and weight conditions.