London - The London Heathrow Airport will officially open its £4.3 billion, 5th terminal on March 27th,  exclusive to its national carrier, British Airways with an estimated handling capacity of 30 million customers a year.

This is coming after the Queen of England,Elizabeth II and the Prime minister,Gordon Brown officially commissioned the new terminal on March 14th.  The new terminal is expected to offer British Airways customers a smoother, easier, calmer airport experience. The design of the building lends itself to a continuous forward moving flow of people never requiring them to turn back on themselves.

All British Airways flights, which presently operate at terminals 1, 3 and 4 will shift to the new terminal which has been described as one of the largest construction projects in Europe .

The concept and design for terminal 5 has been developed by the Richard Rogers Partnership to the specification of the British Airports Authority[BAA]even as British Airways has been involved at every stage of the building’s planning and designing how it will operate on a day-to-day basis.

While the terminal covers 260 hectares just under a quarter of the size of the current airport,the terminal will eventually consist of a main terminal building and two satellite terminals linked by underground shuttle trains.

“Terminal 5 will transform the flying experience for the millions of British Airways customers who pass through Heathrow each year. For the vast majority, the new experience will be faster,smoother and simpler. Many more British Airways transfer customers will be able to connect to their next flight without changing termnials,” the airline said in Lagos.

It is also anticipated that 80 per cent of customers departing from Heathrow will check-in online via the airline’s website or use a self-service check-in kiosk while there will be 96 kiosks in terminal 5 for customers to use as they enter the building.

According to reports, the interior is large enough to hold about 50 football pitches and it’s also home to the largest span roof in the UK while the building’s floor-to-ceiling windows offer outstanding views of the runways.

Apart from the fact that the new terminal will increase Heathrow’s passenger capacity to a whopping 90 million every year, for the first time the airport will have enough space for all of the passengers coming through the airport.

The terminal was however not built without adequate consideration for importance of safety as seen in the installation of high-tech scanners which will be used on every security channel to speed up checks.

The scanners are designed to automatically detect bags that contain explosives or liquids, before quickly diverting them to one side for further examination. Confirming the security status of the new terminal,an official at the airport said the new measures mean every passenger traveling on a domestic route will have to have their photograph taken and fingerprint scanned at passport control.

Passengers will then have to verify their fingerprint again at the gate before being given permission to board the flight.

British Airports Authority [BAA] attributed this new measure to its determination to ensure that the person who turns up at the gate is the same one who checked in. The technology is already being checked on domestic passengers at other Heathrow terminals, but there are not yet plans to fingerprint people flying out of the UK on international flights.

Approval for the construction of the state of art terminal came in November 2001 after so much debate and a 46 months long public enquiry. Those opposed to the scheme included 95 per cent of the parties involved in the enquiry and 13 local authorities and the enquiry finally came to an end in March 1999 after costing some £80 million pounds. BAA paid £64 million pounds of this the rest was paid by the tax payer at local and state level.

Though the idea for terminal 5 was first mooted in the early 1970’s while the plans for the future terminal 4 were being put together but the thought that terminal 5 will be opened in 1990 could not be realized based on the huge public enquiry that followed which made the airport authority to put aside the project according to reports.

The new terminal building will include the main terminal 5 and 3 separate satellite buildings all located on the far West of the airport. 30 million passengers a year are expected to use the terminal, helping the airport add much needed capacity. T5 according to BAA plans will allow the airport to cater for 80 million passengers annually by 2011, 87 million by 2016 and 90-05 million by 2030.

Bringing the terminal 5 into operation will mean BAA can then put much needed investment into the four other terminals with major refurbishment works.

Terminal 5 will provide 47 extra aircraft stands of which 10 will be of sufficient size to handle the A380 airbus, the worlds largest passenger plane. By 2011, another 13 stands will be added to bring the total extra capacity up to 60 aircraft stands.

The project includes a 4,000 space multi-storey car park, a new link road from the M25 motorway, the diversion of two rivers, reconstructing the Western perimeter road, a new 600 bed major hotel, (the Sofitel Heathrow terminal 5), and the extension of the current rail links, the Heathrow Express and the Piccadilly line.

Source: Nigerian Tribune

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