British Airways’ home at London Heathrow, Terminal 5, opened on March 27, 2008.
Terminal 5 puts the customer in control of their travel, from the technology employed both before and during the flight experience to the flowing, flexible layout of the building.
Customers havevoted British Airways staff as the best in Europe at the2022 WorldAirline Awards,andBest Airport Terminal in the world for five consecutive years (2012-2016). The award recognises the airline’s staff for their friendliness and efficiency, and highlights the consistent excellent service delivered by airport and on-board customer service teams.Terminal 5 offers a seamless airport experience with stylish shops, restaurants and luxurious lounges.
Customers can move swiftly through the departures area giving them the luxury to do as they like once they are ‘airside’, be that relaxing, eating, shopping or working, all within a state-of-the-art environment.
The overall customer experience:
Terminal 5 was created with the premise of making air travel easy through one of the world’s busiest airport hubs – London Heathrow.
Customers flow through the airport in a logical, linear manner. The majority of customers have checked in before arriving at the airport or they can use one of theself-service kiosks and bag drop machines.
The Flight Connections Centre for transfer customers is located within the heart of the building and helps many more customers connect through a single terminal meaning less distance to travel and a faster arrival at their next flight.
First, Club World, Club Europe, Gold and Silver Executive ClubandoneworldEmerald and Sapphire memberscan also take advantage of thefiveBritish Airways’ loungesthat are available for them in Terminal 5,(based on eligibility and availability, please see theoneworldlounge websitefor more information).
Operations:
By the end of 2017, almost 270 million customers had used Terminal 5, on more than 1.9 million flights.
In 2019,the terminalon averagelookedafter between 550 and 600 weekday flights and around 90,000 customersaday.
In 2019,at the peak of the busy school summer holidays,morethan 100,000 customersusedthe facilities each day.
In 2019,Terminal 5 servedmorethan115 destinations.
The building:
Terminal 5, which opened on March 27, 2008, was designed by Rogers,Stirk, Harbour & Partners. It wasbuilt at a cost of £4.3 billion. It is exclusively used by British Airways and Iberia and has the capacity to handle more than 30 million customers a year.
British Airways invested £330 million in designing and equipping its parts of the terminal. This figure included £60 million spent on the lounge complex as well as significant investment in IT systems, ground vehicles and equipment, storage and maintenance facilities plus staff training and familiarisation.
The building is so vast it is possible to fit 50 football pitches over Terminal 5’s fivefloors,butmoving around couldn’t be simpler thanks to improved flow through the building, clear signage and the location of departure gates.
Terminal 5 consists of a main terminal building (T5A) and two satellite buildings (T5B and T5C) linked by an underground track transit system. T5A and T5B opened in March 2008, while T5C opened in May 2010.Terminal 5 has embraced new technologies,with the additions oftouch-points, new hosted bag drop machines, self-boarding gates, automated security machines in flight connections areas and e-gates in the immigration hall.
The building itself is light, airy and modern - more than 30,000 square metres of glass was used to glaze the 40m high and the 396m long main terminal building.
The aircraft stands are located around the buildings. Due to the use of an underground track transit system this means that aircraft are unimpaired by cul-de-sacs or other planes when they need to pull away from the jetty. This will speed up the arrival and departure of flights, thereby improving punctuality.
Arriving ready:
The majority of customers use BA’s self-service channels to check-in - many of them arrive at Terminal 5 ready to fly having checked-in via ba.com
The building is designed to ensure that customers keep moving in one direction, starting at one of the check-in kiosks before moving on to the fast bag drop desks followed by the northern and southern security search points.
The intelligent, flexible design of the building also means that British Airways can use the desks to react to changing customer needs and ensure the continuing forward flow of passengers.
New technology:
All domestic flights leaving from T5 are now boarded through self-serve biometric gates. The gates create a smoother journey for customers as they travel through the airport, with travellers scanning their own boarding pass when they arrive at the gate and then simply walking through to the aircraft.
British Airways is also trialling biometric technology on select international flights departing from Terminal 5. This enables the customer to scan their passport prior to arrival at the airport and speed up the departures process, without the need to physically show their passport.
All short haul flights departing from T5A are pushed back using remote controlled, eco-friendlyMototoktugs. Theequipment, used to move Airbus short-haul aircraft, replaces traditional diesel tugs, allowing a single ramp agent to push an aircraft backwards from the gate remotely.
Getting there:
Customers are encouraged, where possible, to take public transport to Terminal 5.
A plaza hosts the main transport links. It is a unique design feature and space (30m wide and the length of the building) and is landscaped with 40 mature trees, fountains, seating areas, artworks and an outdoor café area when the weather permits.
Underneath the north end of the plaza a railway station housessix platforms; two for the Heathrow Express, two for London Underground’s Piccadilly Line and two for the recently opened Elizabeth Line. Naturallight floods the platforms thanks to a transparent roof made from the same material as the Eden Project biomes in Cornwall.
For those who do need to arrive by car, a spur road connects Terminal 5 to theM25, Britain's busiest motorway. This makes access to the terminal much easier and avoids the need for cars to circumnavigate the perimeter roads, which could cause more congestion and pollution.
The plaza separates the multi-storey car park and drop off forecourts from the main terminal. They are connected to the departures hall of the terminal building by four glazed ‘skybridges’.
The car park hassome 4,000 spaces and Heathrowhas invested in a range of technologies to make it stress free, including a car finder service to help customers locate their car and bay monitoring to ensure they find a space quickly.
The bus and coach stationislocated on the ground floor level of the multi-storey car park.
A 600-room luxury hotel, The Sofitel London Heathrow, is also part of the T5 campus. The £180 million hotel opened in July 2008 and has ashort coveredlink bridge joining it direct to the main terminal building.
Getting around:
Terminal 5 has been designed in such a way as to ensure that it is simple for customers to make their way through the building.
On arrival at Terminal 5, customers will move immediately to the bank of kiosks, then onto the bag drop desks, before making their way through security. Customers will then pass through the retail area towards the aircraft gates.
Heathrow has fitted large ‘beacons’ as orientation landmarks, making it clear for customers where they need to be.
There are plenty of screens and information around Terminal 5 denoting the location of and amount of time it takes to get to each gate. British Airways staff are also on hand to help with queries.
Transfers:
Unlike the rest of the yellow signage normally associated with airports, the transfer channels will be highlighted with purple signs making it easy for customers to connect from one flight to another.
An underground track transit system has been installed throughout Terminal 5 to transfer customers between the buildings.
Thesystem will move 6,500 passengers per hour at a speed of 30 miles per hour. The journey time is just 45 seconds to T5B and just under 90 seconds to T5C.
Premium customers connecting from one flight onto another, are offered the connection service via anenvironmentally-friendlyelectric taxi service. The taxisfeaturesWi-Fi, phone, laptop and USB charging and a panorama roof- great for plane spotting. The introduction of the fleet of electric taxis are part of Terminal 5's bigger plan to become emission free airside.
Lounges:
In 2017, the First Wing opened at T5 - an exclusive redesigned check-in area for premium customers, including a dedicated private security channel with direct lounge access for the first time.
Terminal 5 has allowed British Airways to radically overhaul the airline’s airport lounges, with the lounges costing£60 million to build.
There are six lounges within theHeathrowterminalscollectively known as ‘Galleries’, with five location in Terminal 5 and one in Terminal 3.
We’ve launched ‘Your Menu’, a digital ordering platform where you can orderfood and drink to be delivereddirectly to you.
The lounges embrace a decadent look and feel with crystal chandeliers, fabrics by Osborne and Little, art installations and mood lighting to reflect the time of day. Crafted screens divide the lounges into sections. Beautiful wine bars are available for customers and restaurants will serve fresh food prepared in view of the traveller.
Work and entertainment zones allow customers to log into the internet, check their emails and view entertainment.
The Concorde Room boasts a Concorde bar and restaurant. The Galleries First Lounge hosts a champagne bar and a ‘Gold’ bar and the Galleries Club Lounges feature ‘Silver’ bars. The bars will host regular wine tastings for the connoisseurs travelling.
The Elemis Travel Spa is temporarily closed until further notice due to Covid-19.Prior to Covid-19, for those wanting to relax and indulge themselves,they include customised facials, shoulder, scalp and back massages, and feet and hand re-energisers.
Baggage:
Oncethe customer has checked in at the kiosks or online, they can deposit their luggageatup to70 bagdrop desks.
The bags are loaded into lifts and lowered down into the highly sophisticated baggage system that delivers them to their specific flight.
The baggage system was the first part of the building to be developed ensuring that it is comfortably housed within Terminal 5. It is one of the most advanced of any major global airport and involves more than 18km of belts and tracks to move the bags around the terminal.At its peak itprocesses 12,000 bags per hour.
Retail:
Customers wishing to catch up on any retail therapy or fine dining can do so at Terminal 5. The retail facilities are unlike anything experienced before at an airport terminal.
Designed into the fabric of the building, the 200,000sq ft retail area has been carefully designed to ensure it isproportionate to the scale of Terminal 5, enhances the experience and works with the grain of the building.Terminal 5 holds the capacity ofmore than 112 stores and restaurants across Terminal 5’s three buildings offering a great choice of goods and food.For more information on available stores and restaurants in Terminal 5 pleaseclick here.
Environment:
Close attention was paid to minimising the impact on the environment during the construction of Terminal 5.
85 per cent of waste on the project was recovered and materials have been recycled and re-used throughout the building process.
A super-strength concrete was used for the construction of the airfield, which meant less was required. This alone saved 60,000 tonnes of CO2.
Waste heat from an existing combined heat and power plant is being piped to the Terminal 5 energy centre to provide the building with 85 per cent of its heat on demand. This saves around 11,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
Inside the terminal, the lighting is controlled digitally. Individual lights can be turned on, off or dimmed. The baggage systems and escalators benefit from variable speed drives, slowing down the systems when not in use.
The terminal itself is glazed on all facades, reducing the need for artificial lighting. South-facing facades benefit from louvres, angled in such a way as to prevent the summer sun penetrating the building.
Energy efficient fittings are found throughout the terminal building and only centrally chilled water is used to cool the building, limiting the need for individually chilled air conditioning units and refrigerators throughout the building.
Water from Terminal 5’srainwaterharvestingand groundwater boreholes is being used reducing the demand on the public water supply by 70 per cent. The harvesting scheme re-uses up to 85 per cent of the rainfall that falls on the terminal’s campus.
When aircraft arrive on to astandthey canbe attached to a system which pumps air into the cabin. When used with fixed electrical ground power units the aircraft engines and auxiliary power units can be completely shut down cutting out unnecessary emissions.
For more information on British Airways Terminal 5click here.
