[ChrisBuda82]

A island airport does not make sense for London as it only be for London, LHR need to expanded up to 4 runways and the housebuilders that built right up close to LHR and the planers where nuts:S

[BeckyBoop]

Chris, I totally agree, i suggested 4 runways on a different thread but to ease congestion and safety not expansion

[RichHI1]

But it is easier to produce red herring after red herring than take hard decisions and make progress.

[ChrisBuda82]

BeckyBoop you are right to about safety it is fighting seeing all them planes when you waiting to land.

[DisgustedofSwieqi]

Does anyone else agree that it is ludicrous for T5C to be sans lounge?

Giving people a Starbucks voucher sounds like the behaviour you would expect from a naff airline.

[MartynSinclair]

If there is no T5C lounge all that will presumably happen is passengers will remain in the Galleries for longer and together BA and Galleries will have to find a solution.

[DisgustedofSwieqi]

Martyn

I agree. However, getting from the Galleries in A to the gate in C is not a 2min job and nothing like as good as using the B lounge and then strolling to the gate.

[JordanD]

I believe BA have said that there is space in T5C for a lounge, and that they will review the situation once the A380s are being introduced. From what I remember, the A380s would predominantly be based out of T5C, so that will probably give the demand for a lounge that isn’t yet needed.

[HedgeFundFlyer]

BA could simply close the Galleries North lounge and re-open something similar in T5C. I’ve never really understood the point of having two Club/Silver lounges in T5A. It’s not like it takes more than five minutes to walk from one end of the building to the other.

[VintageKrug]

The North lounge is handy if you’re flying through on shorthaul, particularly the domestic services which often depart from the Northern gates.

On Domectics/shorthaul you typically don’t arrive hours before your flight, and just need to grab some coffee and a croissant and head down to the boarding gate, but wouldn’t have time to schlep all the way to the other end to use the lounge.

One can only speculate what sort of facilities and lounge complexes might be developed for the T5A extension……

[BeckyBoop]

Hey whats wrong with Starbucks they do the great mocha’s!!!

Dont forget they still have D and E to be built yet, so may have to wait longer and what they decide to run out of each, wouldnt be surprised if they left the lounge for the last two and moved all the long haul into these especially for the a380 on the end of E as there will be more space.

[Binman62]

Can’t see how you can close any of the current lounges given they are generally all very busy. Galleries North was intended for UK domestic traffic as A1-A5 are the preferred domestic departure gates. Other gates can also be used but not as easily.

Of course, further enhancements to membership benefits, in particular the removal of automatic guest access (in favour perhaps of limited guest access per annum) could bring down the numbers and so allow the closure of a lounge.

My view is that this is not on the cards as the BA ground product in T5 is a very real product differentiator and BA would be mad to lose this advantage.

[BusinessTraveller]

Business Traveller will be attending the official topping out ceremony for the new Terminal 2 this afternoon, and will post a report on this site following the event (possibly tomorrow morning depending on timings).

We will also do our best to post photos on our Twitter page here:

http://www.twitter.com/btuk

[VintageKrug]

I’d be particularly interested to learn which airlines will have lounges, and what size (sq. footage) will be used for these facilities.

Will it just be one large Star Alliance lounge complex? Any news on the planned facilities therein (spa, cinema, cabanas etc.?)

[BusinessTraveller]

Business Traveller is currently tweeting from the forthcoming Terminal 2, including photos posted from inside the terminal building:

http://www.twitter.com/btuk

[Author]

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