LAHSO: land and hold short clearances

August 4, 2026 · FAA tower operations · JO 7110.65 3-10-4 and the LAHSO order

TL;DR — WHAT DECIDES IT

LAHSO lets an arrival land on one runway and stop before an intersecting runway, so the crossing runway stays usable. It only works when the available landing distance to the hold-short point is genuinely enough for that aircraft type, on a dry runway.
The pilot in command can decline at any time, and that is not a refusal you argue with. Never issue a LAHSO clearance without already knowing what you will do if the answer is “unable”.

LAHSO is the tower's way of getting two runways out of one intersection. The arrival lands, stops short of the crossing runway, and the departure on that runway never has to wait. Used well it removes a whole layer of sequencing. Used carelessly it is the clearance most likely to put an aircraft somewhere it cannot stop.

The phraseology is the easy part. The judgement is knowing whether you should have offered it at all.

The picture behind the words

The only distance that matters is threshold to hold-short line, and the aircraft has to be off the runway before it, not stopped on it.

Available landing distance is the whole decision

ALD is the distance from the landing threshold to the hold-short point. It is published, not estimated, and the crew needs it to accept the clearance. Your side of the decision is simpler than it sounds: does this specific aircraft stop and leave the runway inside that distance, today, on this surface?

Check	Controller question	If it fails
Intersecting runways	Do the two runways actually cross?	The clearance is meaningless — issue a normal landing clearance
Available landing distance	Is the ALD published for this pair?	No LAHSO
Aircraft type	Does this type stop and exit well inside the ALD?	No LAHSO for that arrival
Usable exit	Is there a taxiway before the hold-short line it can actually make?	No LAHSO
Surface	Is the runway dry?	No LAHSO in rain, snow or standing water
Pilot	Has the crew accepted it, unprompted and clearly?	Plan B, immediately

A heavy is the obvious no. So is a slick runway, and so is an exit the aircraft physically cannot reach at taxi speed. When any of those is true, the professional move is not to offer LAHSO and to sequence the crossing runway instead.

The phraseology

The hold-short element is part of the landing clearance, not a separate instruction issued afterwards. The runway to hold short of is always named.

TOWER — LAHSO LANDING CLEARANCE “Delta four two seven, runway zero four, cleared to land, hold short of runway one three.”

The readback must contain the hold-short instruction. A readback that says “cleared to land zero four” and stops is not an acceptance, and it is the most common way a LAHSO clearance quietly becomes an ordinary landing in the pilot's head.

INCOMPLETE READBACK — CORRECT IT Pilot: “Cleared to land runway zero four, Delta four two seven.”
ATC: “Delta four two seven, hold short of runway one three, acknowledge.”

When the pilot says unable

The pilot in command has the final say and can decline a LAHSO clearance at any point, including after accepting it. A decline is a normal operational answer, not a problem to be negotiated, and asking a crew on short final to justify it is both unhelpful and a distraction at the worst moment.

What matters is that “unable” never surprises you. Before you offer LAHSO, the crossing runway plan has to already exist:

The departure on the crossing runway holds until the arrival is clear.
The arrival gets a full-length landing clearance with no hold-short element.
If the gap has already closed, the arrival goes around and the sequence starts again with a runway you fully control.

TOWER — AFTER A DECLINE “Delta four two seven, roger, runway zero four cleared to land. Southwest one one eight two, hold short runway one three, traffic landing zero four.”

Who should not be given LAHSO

Student pilots and crews unfamiliar with the operation are outside the program. Heavies are excluded in practice by stopping distance alone. Beyond that, LAHSO is bounded by published weather minima and by the facility's own authorisation for that specific runway pair, which is why the same intersection can be LAHSO-eligible at one airport and simply unavailable at another.

The FAA publishes both the phraseology and the operational limits, and they are revised. Read the current text rather than a summary before you use any specific figure operationally.

Common controller mistakes

Offering LAHSO because the gap is tight. Pressure is a reason to sequence conservatively, not to move the problem onto a landing crew.
Treating an incomplete readback as acceptance. If the hold-short element is not read back, the clearance has not been accepted.
Issuing it in the rain. A wet surface removes the margin the whole operation depends on.
Applying it to a heavy. The stopping distance is not there, and the answer will be “unable” at the least convenient moment.
No plan B. If a decline forces you to improvise on short final, the clearance was issued too late and too optimistically.
Rolling the departure early. The crossing runway is only released once the arrival is confirmed stopped or clear, not when it touches down.

A five-minute controller drill

LAHSO needs intersecting runways, so it cannot be practised at San Diego, which has a single runway. Use an airport with a real crossing pair such as LaGuardia (04/22 with 13/31) or Washington National.

Open a Tower session at an airport with intersecting runways, in clear weather.
Put a departure on the crossing runway and hold it.
Give the next arrival a landing clearance with a hold-short element and read the answer carefully.
Try the same clearance on a heavy, and again with rain in the weather, and watch both get declined for the right reasons.
Release the crossing departure only once the arrival is off the runway, then check the debrief for what the sequence actually cost you.

Primary references: FAA JO 7110.65, Chapter 3 Section 10 (landing clearances and LAHSO phraseology), Aeronautical Information Manual 4-3-11 (pilot procedures, available landing distance and weather minima) and the FAA's dedicated LAHSO order. Always use current charts, facility directives and training material; this diagram is not for navigation.

Practise tower decisions in the browser

ProjectATC checks a hold-short clearance against the real centreline intersection, the aircraft's stopping distance and the live weather, so “unable” means something. San Diego and all five controller positions are free; the intersecting-runway airports where LAHSO applies are part of Pro.

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