New Heathrow terminal puts emphasis on check-in speed

Airport operator BAA and Heathrow’s biggest airline – British Airways – both hope that the new £4.3bn (€5.6bn) Terminal 5 (T5) will be the dream facility to end the nightmare that the airport can become at times for passengers.

T5 is linked to both the Tube’s Piccadilly line and to the Heathrow Express main line services.

Ten 50-person glass lifts will take passengers from the T5 station to departures.

Once in the check-in hall at the west London airport, passengers will be faced with 96 self-service kiosks, more than 90 fast-bag drops and 54 standard check-in desks.

BA, which will have sole use of T5, aim to have around 80% of passengers opting for the self-service check-in.

With bags being taken “downstairs” using hoists, there is no luggage belt running behind the check-in area so passengers can continue forward to ticket presentation and security.

BA is confident that no passengers will have more than one person in front of them when they check in and that the time taken from arriving in the terminal to getting through security will only be 10 minutes.

BA has been plagued of late with lost-baggage problems. To help matters, the sophisticated T5 baggage system will consist of more than 10 miles of conveyor equipment controlled by an integrated network of 140 computer servers and will be able to process up to 12,000 bags an hour.

Bags will fall into three categories – early, on time and time critical – with the time-critical luggage being delivered directly to the aircraft stand of the departing flight.

The facades are made up of more than 30,000 square metres of glass which is coated with a film which controls the amount of sunlight entering the terminal.

There are more than 9,000 seats in T5, as well as 800 toilets and 32 baby-changing facilities.

In addition, there are nearly 90 shops and 25 catering outlets.