Heathrow’s T5C has officially opened for business, reducing the number of passengers bussed to their aircraft from the main terminal from around 20 per cent to five per cent.
British Airways inaugural San Diego flight on Wednesday 1 June was the excuse for the official opening, although passengers have been using T5C for several weeks as BA trialled the new satellite terminal.
The T5C satellite is linked to the rest of Terminal 5 by the existing underground transit system and has 12 boarding gates, of which eight are triple bridges designed to cater for the new 12 strong fleet of Airbus A380 aircraft joining the British Airways fleet from early 2013.
James Wooldridge, BA’s Operations Manager, says that the trials indicate that the extended transit time across to T5C has not resulted in any difficulties for passengers.
“We’ve done some pretty significant work with way finding and the feedback from customers has been good. And there hasn’t been any trend of passengers missing more flights from T5C than any others.”
Wooldridge says that the destinations served by each satellite change depending on load factors on the aircraft, and the number of transiting passengers, meaning travellers shouldn’t assume that because they fly regularly to a destination, it will be departing (or arriving) from the same satellite.
T5C does not have any lounges, so passengers with lounge access have a choice of using those in T5A or T5B. There is space on the mezzanine level as at T5B for lounges, but Wooldridge says
“... at the moment both T5A and T5B have under-utilised lounges so we don’t see the need to build them. With the A380s and the [increasing use of the] B777-300s that might change.”
Touring T5C and departing from it, it is clear that things are still quiet, with the staff in the various concessions - WH Smith, Starbucks and Boots for instance - certainly having a fairly easy time of it at present.
T5C will eventually be able to handle an extra three million customers each year, all of whom will have a direct covered “air bridge” linked to the terminal building rather than being bussed (BA and BAA prefer “coached”) from the main terminal.
- For the full interview with BA’s Operations Manager James Wooldridge about the opening of T5C, click here.
- For a review of the inaugural service from London to San Diego, including photos of Heathrow T5C, click here.
- More than 520,000 flights have now departed or arrived at the terminal since opening day
- July 2010 was the terminal’s busiest ever month with more than 2.4 million customers using the facilities
- The busiest day since opening was Friday July 30, 2010 with more than 83,500 customers travelling through Terminal 5
- Around six million customers have so far used the six luxurious lounges in the terminal, which were built at a cost of £60 million
- Edinburgh is the most popular short haul destination
- New York and Los Angeles are the most popular long haul destinations
