Heathrow Airport have just released a large amount of information related to the opening of the new Terminal 2, planned for 4 June 2014.
First – Who is going to Terminal 2?
BAA has published this list:
Noticeable amoungst this is Virgin Little Red, which operates only domestic flights and one would have expected to be co-located with Virgin Atlantic (Big Red), in Terminal 3. This will add cost as passengers are bussed to/from the international connections/arrivals on Virgin.
Aer Lingus, famously a former OneWorld partner, is another odd ball in what is really a Star Alliance terminal for all the other carriers there belong to that alliance. (Germanwings is there also, the low cost version of LH which is taking over their flights except to/from Frankfurt and Munich).
Second – When?
Well United goes first switching its operations on 4 June to receive it’s overnight departures from the US landing that morning. Their ex-UK flights are slated to operate on the morning of 4th with the first flight out to Chicago, followed by its early Washington flight. Former Continental flights in to Terminal 4 will move to Terminal 2 on that date, unifying United’s operations at Heathrow for the first time since the merger.
The next moves will happen in waves.
- 18 June – Air Canada, Air China, ANA
- 2 July – EVA Air, Thai Airways,
- 9 July – Aer Lingus
- 23 July – Aegean
- 17 September – Egyptair, Ethopian, Singapore
- Between 1 – 8 October – Brussels Airlines, Austrian, Lufthansa, Swiss
- 22 October – Air New Zealand, Asiana, Croatia, LOT Polish, South African, TAP
- November or later in 2014 – Germanwings, US Airways, Virgin Little Red
And still to be determined are the moves for SAS (from Terminal 3), and Turkish
So if you are coming to London next year on a Star Alliance airline keep an eye on the BAA web page for airline changes for the latest.
Third – What will it be like?
Well an airport, obviously.
More images and videos at the Heathrow Airport Terminal microsite.
Fourth – Are you excited?
A better airport experience always has to be welcome. Special Fast Track areas will be provided which should mean speedier security clearance than at present. A recent poor experience at Terminal 1 makes me want to hope that it will all be better.
Fifth – Is it likely to be OK?
Would I like to be sure that it will all go to plan? Yes, I would. Will it? That’s the leading question. I hope we can have a national success and that the lessons learned from the fiasco that was the Terminal 5 opening have been used to make this a much smoother opening.
I’m booked on the United Chicago flight on 4 June, so fingers crossed it’ll be the first flight out on the first day of operations.
Regarding Little Red and Aer Lingus… As I understand it, Terminal 3 has no facilities to process passengers arriving on domestic/Common Travel Area flights and wouldn’t be able to do so without a significant re-build.
I think Aer Lingus will remain in T2, but I wonder if, once it’s reducing at lower capacity, there might be some scope to re-work T3 and accommodate Little Red – if it lasts that long.
Conversely, with UA and some DL leaving T4, I’m sure we’ll see another push to move the remaining orphans from T3 to T4 (MEA, Oman, Iran, Lybian, PIA…), then T3 can be neatly divided amongst VS/DL, OneWorld and EK.
With some carriers moving from T3 to T2 during 2014, there will the opportunity for a bit of tidying up as there’ll be ‘room to breathe’. Summer 2015 will see BA move flights from T1 to T3 so BA will more than likely acquire more floorspace & checkin desks.
You may well see MEA, Oman, Iran, Lybian, PIA, etc move to T4, it all depends on gate slots being available to accommodate them. Bear in mind that once T1 has been emptied work will start on demolishing it and further extension of T2 taking place.