UK. British Airways is to move into Heathrow’s new, state of the art terminal 5 in a single move in spring 2008, rather than phasing the transition over four years.
BAA and British Airways announced today that they have signed a statement of intent to accelerate occupation of the new terminal.
“This is good news for Heathrow passengers, for all the Heathrow airlines and for BAA. This agreement will make available significantly more space within existing terminals. It will enable us to provide better services to passengers and airlines and achieve greater efficiency,” said BAA chief executive Mike Clasper.
British Airways chief executive Rod Eddington said: “This is excellent news for our customers. For the first time at Heathrow, British Airways will be able to have all its operations in one terminal, making our customers’ journeys simpler, quicker and more efficient. We will be able to offer connecting flights both domestically and internationally on our global network within one state-of-the-art building.”
The acceleration of BA’s move into T5, means that it will vacate the airport’s central terminal area, serving terminals 1 to 3, and also terminal 4 completely in 2008, enabling BAA to simplify its planned programme to redevelop Heathrow’s core terminal facilities.
Since construction of additional facilities in the central terminal area will no longer be required for the transition period, BAA said there will be opportunities to improve retail spend in the transition period as terminals become less congested.
These revisions to the Heathrow development plan will require an additional £100 million (US$165 million) investment in T5, but this will be fully offset by adjustments within the wider Heathrow capital plan, said BAA.
Note: T5, which is slightly ahead of schedule, is 28% finished, with five out of a total of nine tunnels bored and the first pieces of the main terminal building superstructure in place. It will have capacity for 30 million passengers per year, and retail space equivalent to the existing four Heathrow terminals combined at over 440,000sq ft (40,892sq m). The main terminal building is 384 metres long, 165 metres wide and 43 metres high.
