[Anonymous]

[Binman62]

Dissapointingly BA look like they are going ahead with the Iberian switch to T5 from October. There is no info on IB moving but the list of flights from T5 to T3 ncludes Larnaca and Warsaw.

[Bucksnet]

What list?

[Bucksnet]

Just checked BA.com and BA flights to MAD are from T5, but the IB flights are still from T3.

[Hippocampus]

Full details here:

http://www.speedbirdclub.com/nl/all-news/news/twothousandeleven/august/terminalchange/

[Bucksnet]

It states “British Airway’s Madrid and Barcelona services will switch from Terminal 3 to Terminal 5 for the Winter 2011 schedules”

Does this mean they will switch back next summer?

Also, it does not mention IB flights.

[Hippocampus]

No, the move is permanent as it is intended for the benefit of connecting passengers.

It is still planned that Iberia will move into T5, but it appears that there is still work to be done. T5 was set up exclusively for BA’s processes so there’s a lot to do behind the scenes.

[Bucksnet]

The benefit of the few comes at the inconvenience of the many.

[BGIWorldTraveller]

Damn it! Booked LHR-MAD in three weeks on BA and would much prefer to fly from T5 than T3!

[HonestCrew]

This is the mail BA staff received;

“To make the connections process smoother for customers, British Airways will move its flights to Spain from Terminal 3 to Terminal 5 from October 30, 2011.

The airline’s network and operational planning teams are continuing to work closely with Iberia to facilitate the move of its Madrid services from Terminal 3 into Terminal 5 in the near future.

In order to free up space for the move of British Airways’ flights in between Heathrow and Madrid/Barcelona, a small number of destinations will move out of Terminal 5 and into Terminal 3: These will be flights to and from Prague, Budapest, Warsaw, Bucharest and Larnaca.

British Airways’ joint services with Qantas to Singapore, Sydney and Bangkok will remain at Terminal 3, along with services to Gibraltar, Lisbon, Helsinki and Vienna.”

I notice the flights moving over to T3 are those with more ‘leisure passengers’ with fewer business travellers, therefore possibly the lower revenue flights. Is this a step to enabling more of our frequent flyers to benefit from T5 and not the chaos that is T3 with their, let’s say, more ‘exotic airlines’ and their chaotic guests?

[cityprofessional]

“The benefit of the few comes at the inconvenience of the many.”

Errrr, where did that come from – roughly the same number of flights/passengers are swapping terminals. I suspect MAD/BCN were chosen because they have more long haul connections than the destinations moving to T3 – so, in fact, more passengers will benefit from the change, and no longer have to connect via bus

I don’t suppose there’s any way around the terminal split until BAA gets round to building T5D

[HonestCrew]

….or Boris Island finally gets the go-ahead 🙂

[Bucksnet]

Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but all the gates at T3 are wide body capable gates. T5 has gates only suitable for narrow bodies.

It makes no sense for large numbers of A320 flights to use T3, when there will no doubt be times when smaller gates are free at T5 that cannot handle larger planes. If all wide body gates are in use, then long haul arrivals will need to be bussed.

It does make sense for BA to move wide body flights to T3 to make better use of the total number of gates. With proper planning, flights times and terminals can be adjusted to finally bring bussing to an end.

[SenatorGold]

I would disagree that Warsaw is a leisure route. Club is often full. For the summer 2008 schedule BA took the crazy decision to transfer WAW services to LGW. The immediate result was a 70% drop in load as the majority of passengers on this route are transfer traffic. It didn’t take long for BA to transfer its WAW services back to LHR.

[Hippocampus]

Post Iberia merger moving BCN and MAD services makes sense as the merger was intended to drive connecting traffic between the two hubs.

There will always be those who won’t be happy about flights in T3, but on the flipside, a split terminal operation is better than the situation pre-T5 where Terminal 4 in particular was bursting at the seams which makes it much harder to carry out periodic works on the building and so forth. And once you’ve stepped over the mass of humanity in the departures lounge the T3 Galleries lounges are very nice. And there is the option of the CX lounges for eligible cardholders. The bussing arrangements are also more civilised than at T5.

[Author]

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