British Airways Open BA-Only Terminal 5 at Heathrow
by Liam Bailey
2008-03-26 21:39:08 **news**
British Airways is moving into its controversial Terminal 5 overnight 26/27 Mar 2008. The new terminal was controversial because of its size, and protests by eco-groups. Now that it is built and in operation, it will remove some of the congestion that Heathrow airport is best known for, running some 27 million passengers per year over its 40 million per year capacity. The new terminal's capacity is 30 million passengers per year which doesn't give them much expansion room, but there you go.
The new terminal is for British Airways only, and BA hope that the new terminal will be handling 90pct of its passengers by October next year. Willie Walsh, BA's chief executive said in a statement that the transfer operation, ahead of tomorrow's opening, would be a historic move:
"Everyone knows the exceptional congestion that Heathrow endures as the world's busiest international airport. But we are relocating to a completely new terminal without requiring any kind of shutdown by the airport authorities."
The first flight from Hong Kong is scheduled to land at 4:50am 27 Mar, and the first departure will leave at 6:20 that evening.
