Now boarding

With its streamlined design, striking art and world-class lounges, Heathrow’s new T2 promises a pleasing journey for Star Alliance passengers, says Graham Smith

In December 1955, Queen Elizabeth II inaugurated London Airport’s first passenger terminal, the Central Terminal Area.

Unveiling a plaque naming it the Queen’s Building, she declared: “Whatever form air travel may take in the future, and we may be certain that striking changes lie ahead, London Airport will, I am sure, continue to grow in importance as one of the world centres of air traffic.”

A prescient remark, although neither Queen Elizabeth nor transport officials could have predicted just how many passengers would one day pass through the terminal, let alone the airport, long ago renamed Terminal 2 and Heathrow respectively.

This month, the 88-year-old monarch will for a second time officially open T2, now rechristened the Queen’s Terminal. The old T2 was built to handle an annual 1.2 million passengers; by its closure in 2009, it was dealing with eight million and the airport 65.9 million.

The new terminal is opening in stages from June 4. For the first two weeks, United will be the only airline using the £2.5 billion facility. Fellow Star Alliance carriers Air Canada, Air China and ANA will join it on June 18, with the alliance’s other airlines moving over gradually until all are in place at the end of October. Aer Lingus, Germanwings and Virgin Atlantic Little Red will be the only non-Star Alliance carriers operating out of the terminal.

A major boon for Star Alliance passengers will be the reduction in transfer times that comes with operating out of the same building. From October, the alliance anticipates an average transfer time of 60 minutes, compared with the 90 minutes it currently takes.

Mark Schwab, chief executive of Star Alliance, says: “Our initial objective is to reduce [connection times] to 60 minutes. [Amsterdam] Schiphol is delivering transfer times close to 45 minutes and that’s where we want to get to.”

Terminal 2 has been designed to take into account passenger moods and reactions to everyday elements such as natural light, acoustics and comfort. To this end, lead architect Luis Vidal and his team have flooded the building with daylight from north-facing skylights, while the gate areas will be open-plan and part of the main departure area.

John Holland-Kaye, who takes over as Heathrow’s chief executive on July 1, having previously been development director, says: “Terminal 2 is the model of future terminals. It has been designed around the passengers, so we have really simple passenger flows. For instance, there is more space in security and deeper lanes.”

Potential teething problems aside – and the airport will be keen to avoid the issues that beset the launch of T5 in 2008 – Heathrow and Star Alliance are promising a streamlined, straightforward check-in process.

Most passengers will head straight to one of 66 self-service kiosks, each of which caters for every flight so they can check in wherever they choose, with staff on hand to assist.

Economy passengers with luggage then move forward to the fast bag drop or, behind that, to 56 traditional premium and economy check-in desks. The 60 bag-drop desks are zonal – that is, they’re not assigned to any particular airline – so as long as you’re in the right zone, you can go to any desk. Aer Lingus and Virgin Atlantic Little Red prove the exception: both have their own desks in Zone C.

The bag-drops also double as premium check-in desks for first and business class passengers during busy periods.

Directly behind the check-in hall, security has four fast-track lanes and 17 for economy passengers. After passing through, passengers arrive at the balcony level of departures, which is like a slightly smaller version of the T5 departures hall. Straight ahead is a glass wall that overlooks the apron and the gates.

Shops, bars and restaurants line the balcony to the left and right and downstairs. There are 52 retail outlets in total at T2, including the first airport John Lewis store and a personal shopper lounge.

Max Vialou-Clark, Heathrow’s retail director, says: “I’m conscious that retail is not the reason why people have come to Terminal 2. They’ve come to get on a plane. But we have put together a package that inspires and encourages people to get involved in the retail offer.”

Dining options include Heston Blumenthal’s the Perfectionists’ Café – offering “easy to enjoy, familiar dishes… with some truly British eccentricity thrown in”, according to the chef – and the Gorgeous Kitchen, a collaboration between chefs Gee Charman, Sophie Michell, Jo Pratt and Caroline Mi Li Artiss, serving global cuisine and afternoon tea. There will also be a Fuller’s pub called London’s Pride, where a specially brewed ale named Wingman will be on the pumps.

From here, those flying long-haul from the terminal’s T2B satellite pier head down to a walkway that links it, under the runway, to the main building. Taking you underground is the second-longest escalator in the country, after the one in Angel Underground station.

The 522-metre-long satellite atrium, which will see annual footfall of ten million people, has floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the airfield. T2B hosts the United, Air Canada and Singapore Airlines lounges, more shops and restaurants and 16 boarding gates.

A major talking point ahead of T2’s opening has been the huge sculpture suspended in the entrance courtyard, a space on the scale of the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall.

With some 20 million passengers passing through T2 each year, Richard Wilson’s Slipstream, which is longer than an A380 and is designed to resemble the flight path of a stunt plane, will be the UK’s most-viewed public sculpture.

It takes pride of place in a zone that connects the 1,340-space car park and the terminal building, and is open to the air at both ends.

There is also a short-stay car park for business travellers offering the same space-finding technology as used in T5 – lights indicate vacant bays, while entering your number plate into a touchscreen panel shows the location of your parked vehicle.

Immigration in arrivals will have 35 lanes in total, plus ten e-gates, and there will be eight lanes for flight connections.

Next up in Heathrow’s evolution will be the closure of Terminal 1 in 2016, which will be then be demolished the same year. Terminal 2 will then be extended to become Heathrow’s main aviation facility.

The airport may eventually build a further new terminal should it secure permission to build a third runway.

Holland-Kaye says: “At that point, Britain will have the world-class hub it deserves.”

WHEN AIRLINES WILL MOVE IN

• June 4 United Airlines (from T1 and T4)?
• June 18 Air Canada, ANA, Air China (from T3)?
• July 2 Eva Air, Thai Airways, Turkish Airlines (from T3), Avianca (new to Heathrow)
• July 9 Aer Lingus (from T1)?
• July 23 Aegean Airlines (from T1)?
• September 10 Scandinavian Airlines (from T3), Virgin Atlantic Little Red (from T1)?
• September 17 Singapore Airlines, Egyptair, Ethiopian Airlines (from T3)?
• October 1 Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines (from T1)?
• October 8 Germanwings (from T1)?
• October 15 Swiss, Brussels Airlines (from T1)?
• October 22 Air New Zealand, Asiana Airlines, South African Airways, TAP Portugal, Croatia Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines (from T1)

LOUNGES AT T2