London Heathrow Airport - Terminal 5 Airport Parking & Hotels

At A Glance

Cost £4.3bn
Start of construction: Summer 2002
Opened: March 2008
Number of passengers annually: 30 million

Some Facts and Figures

Situated at the western end of Heathrow airport, work began on the Terminal 5 project in September 2002 and finished in March 2008. Terminal 5 was Europe's largest building site, employing some 6500 people.  The Terminal 5 building site was so big that two rivers had to be diverted around the perimeter. The main building (or T5A) is 400m long, 180m wide and 43m high, the same height as Tower Bridge, and the total area covered by Terminal 5 is 265 hectares, the equivalent of 50 football pitches and as large as London's Hyde Park.  Terminal 5 contains 105 lifts, 65 escalators and used 80,000 tonnes of steel - with 17,000 tonnes in the roof of T5A alone.  Spread over 5 floors, T5A is the largest single span building in the UK. It is used mostly for short haul flights, with its main satellite (T5B) taking long haul flights. T5A and T5B are connected by an underground people mover, which can transfer passengers between the two in 50 seconds.  13.5km of tunnels connect it to the Piccadilly line and Heathrow Express. Terminal 5 has 120 retail outlets, and 150 check-in desks.  The centrepiece of Terminal 5 is an open-air plaza between the passenger arrival points and the terminal. The plaza is 400 yards long, with mature plane trees, fountains and cafes.

Arriving at Terminal 5

Terminal 5 is a multi-modal transport interchange with specially constructed road, rail and underground links. A bus and coach station is on the ground floor of the 3,800-space car park, while a 6-platform rail station is located under the main terminal building, housing extensions to the London Underground Piccadilly Line and Heathrow Express. Ten 50-person glass lifts take passengers from the station to Departures at Terminal 5.

Checking in

The Check-in Hall is on the top floor of Terminal 5A, there are 96 self-service kiosks, more than 90 fast bag drops and 54 standard check-in desks. It is British Airways’ aim that around 80 per cent of passengers will opt for self-service check-in at Terminal 5. Following self-service check-in, passengers proceed forward to one of the bag drops. Unlike any other terminal, baggage in Terminal 5 is taken down into the system using hoists. This has removed the need for a baggage belt running behind check-in desks, which means passengers no longer need to turn and walk against the queue, instead they continue forward to ticket presentation and security.

Shopping

Carefully designed to ensure it is proportionate to the scale of the building, Terminal 5’s 112 retail outlets equate to only 5 per cent of the terminal’s total space. But there is more to Terminal 5 than shops and restaurants: working with museums and other cultural institutions,
Terminal 5 features exposition spaces with regularly changing exhibitions. 

Terminal 5 Firsts

There are a number of airport ‘firsts’ in Terminal 5.  Michelin-starred chef Gordon Ramsay has opened his first airport-based restaurant here, with magnificent views over the airfield, while Tiffany & Co. has opened its first European airport boutique at Terminal 5, and only the second after New York, where customers can view a selection of pieces from the Tiffany & Co. archives.  Paul Smith’s Globe is a completely unique store for Terminal 5, both in terms of product offering and the shop environment. It features antique doors from a French chateau, and a terrace looking out onto seasonally-adjusted images screened on a back wall. The store houses one-off pieces and rare books, as well as women’s and menswear collections.

Road Vehicle Access

An Airside Road Tunnel (ART) provides road vehicle access from the Central Terminal Area to aircraft, and stands at the western end of the airfield and Terminal 5 campus. It is an airside road and so will not be accessible by the general public.  The 6.2km ART consists of two parallel single carriageways with a hard shoulder in two separate tunnel bores. Each tunnel has an internal diameter of 8.2m, which is the equivalent width of two fire engines, and is connected via a series of cross passages designed to ensure the safe evacuation of vehicles or people in the event of a vehicle accident in either tunnel.

Automated People Mover

Terminal 5 incorporates a Track Transit System. This is an automated transportation system that transfers passengers between the main terminal and its satellite buildings. Transportation is provided by an Automated People Mover (APM). These are driverless trains which run on a dedicated subsurface guideway.