In Focus - Heathrow Terminal Five

Without doubt today is a historic moment in the development of Heathrow Airport. The opening of Terminal 5 will ease an airport that is at capacity and features many interesting state-of-the-art developments. Let's explore this exciting new building and take a look at the facts surrounding it whilst giving you all the information you need about the largest indoor space in the UK.

The Data

Name: Heathrow Terminal 5
Cost: £4.3 billion
Construction Period: September 2002 - March 2008
Expected annual passengers: 30 million
Car Parking Spaces: 3,800 (multi-storey)
Transport: Rail links for London Underground and Heathrow Express
Accommodation: London Heathrow Hotel (Sofitel), 605 rooms and opening in June 2008

Check-in Desks: 96 (self-service), 90 (fast bag drops), 54 (standard check-in)
Lifts: 192
Escalators: 105
Toilets: 800
Seats: 9,140 (excluding catering seating)

Security Lanes: 20
Security Zones: North and South (2)
Baggage Reclaim Areas: 11
Bags Processed (per hour): 12,000
Children's Play Areas: 3
Retail Outlets: 112 (25 food and drink)

Terminal 5A Dimensions: 396m long x 176m wide x 40m high
Terminal 5B Dimensions: 442m long x 52m wide x 19.5m high
Overall Site Size: 260ha - approximately the same as Hyde Park
Total Length Of Bored Tunnels: 13.5km

Retail and Food

You can find the following retail outlets in Heathrow Terminal 5:

Accessorize, Best of the Best, Boots, Bulgari, Caviar House & Prunier, Chocolate Box, Christian Dior, Coach, Collection, Dixons, Davis Clulow, Glorious Britain, Gucci, Harrods Department, Store, HMV, Hughes and Hughes, Kury Geiger, Links of London, Mappin and Webb, Mulberry, Mont Blanc, Paul Smith "Globe", PC World, Pen Shop, Prada, Reiss, Rolling Luggage, Smythson, Sunglass Hut, Ted Baker, Tie Rack, Tiffany & Co, Thomas Pink, Thomas Cook, Vodaphone, WHSmiths, World Duty Free

You can find the following eateries in Heathrow Terminal 5:

Amato, Apostrophe, Bagel Street, Caviar House & Prunier Seafood Bar, Caffe Nero, Carluccios, Costa, EAT, Geronimo, Giraffe, Guraffe 'Fresh Juice And Coffee Bar', Gordon Ramsay, Huxley's, Krispy Creme, Lovejuice, M&S Simply Food, Pret a Manger, Starbucks, V-Bar, Wagamama

Operations at Heathrow Terminal 5 will commence on the 27th of March 2008. Passenger capacity for the first year is expected to be 30 million and will provide a relief to the airports other terminal buildings that have been creaking under the pressure of the annual 67.3 million people that use the airport. British Airways will be the sole operator from the new terminal with Willie Walsh the Chief Executive for British Airways saying, "Terminal 5 is a fantastic facility and our customers will really enjoy the space, comfort and convenience that it offers. We have exclusive use of the terminal and that will allow us to greatly improve the levels of service we can offer. The customer experience at Terminal 5 will rival, if not exceed, that at any airport in the world."

The Environment

Terminal 5 has installed many energy-saving techniques to ensure that the building is as environmentally friendly as possible. All the facades that make up the building are glazed which ensures that artificial lighting can be kept to a minimum. In addition to this, angled louvres have been employed to ensure that excessive warming does not occur due to the sun.

All the lighting systems are managed by a control system that ensures lighting use is kept to a minimum and can even be switched off automatically in areas of the airport that are not being used. The building uses only water that has been cooled by ammonia chillers ensuring that no air-conditioning units need to be used as they are high-drain electrical items.

Water re-use has been thoroughly thought through at Terminal 5 and rain water supplies the building with 70% of its requirements. The scheme currently used named the 'Rainwater Harvesting Scheme' has the potential to be able to re-use 85% of all water that falls on the terminal building and surrounding area. This this makes the scheme the largest currently in operation in Europe.

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Published by: Jon Vickery