Heathrow Terminal 5 | |
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Terminal 5 exterior
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Location within Greater London
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Alternative names | Terminal 5, British Airways Terminal 5, T5 |
General information | |
Type | Airport terminal |
Location | Junction 14 of the M25 off the A3044 |
Address | Harmondsworth, London, TW6 2GA |
Coordinates | 51°28′22″N 0°29′15″W / 51.47278°N 0.48756°WCoordinates: 51°28′22″N 0°29′15″W / 51.47278°N 0.48756°W |
Elevation | 22 m (72 ft) |
Current tenants | International Airlines Group |
Construction started | September 2002 |
Completed | 2008 |
Inaugurated | 14 March 2008 (opened 27 March 2008 | )
Cost | £4.2 billion |
Client | Heathrow Airport Holdings |
Landlord | Heathrow Airport Holdings |
Technical details | |
Structural system | Steel frame roof with glass facades |
Floor area | 353,020 square metres (3,799,900 sq ft) (Satellite A), 18,500 square metres (199,000 sq ft) (retail area) |
Design and construction | |
Architect | Richard Rogers |
Architecture firm | Richard Rogers Partnership |
Services engineer | Hathaway Roofing Ltd (roof) |
Civil engineer | Arup (above ground), Mott MacDonald (substructures) |
Other designers | Pascall+Watson |
Main contractor | Mace, AMEC, Laing O'Rourke, Morgan Vinci JV (tunnelling) |
Heathrow Terminal 5 is an airport terminal at Heathrow Airport, the main airport serving London. Opened in 2008, the main building in the complex is the largest free-standing structure in the United Kingdom. Terminal 5 is currently used exclusively as one of the three global hubs of International Airlines Group, served by British Airways and Iberia, with the others being London Gatwick North and Madrid Barajas Terminal 4. Prior to 2012, the terminal was used solely by British Airways.
The terminal was designed to handle 35 million passengers a year. In 2015, Terminal 5 handled 33.1 million passengers on 215,716 flights; 44.6% of the airport's passengers on 46.6% of its flights with an average of 153 passengers per flight. It was the busiest terminal at the airport, measured both by passenger numbers and flight movements.
The building's leading architects were from the Richard Rogers Partnership and production design was completed by aviation architects Pascall+Watson. The engineers for the structure were Arup and Mott MacDonald. The building cost £4 billion and took almost 20 years from conception to completion, including the longest public inquiry in British history.
The possibility of a fifth terminal at Heathrow emerged as early as 1982, when there was debate over whether the expansion of Stansted or the expansion of Heathrow (advocated by BA) was the way forward for the UK aviation industry. Planning studies for the terminal commenced in February 1988 and Richard Rogers was selected to design the terminal in 1989. Rogers compared his design to the Centre Pompidou, an earlier project that has similar flexibility in the use of its space.