Heathrow Airport Terminal 5

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Heathrow Airport Terminal 5

Work on the new, controversial Terminal 5 of Heathrow is currently underway. Due to open in March 2008, plans to build this exciting new building were unveiled in 1993; but due to the extensive amount of paperwork and planning investigations, permission wasn't granted until 2001. The new terminal is one of the largest construction projects in Europe and the architecture is expected to be stunning.

Development Plans

There are a number of projects making up the overall Terminal 5 building plan. These include diverting two rivers from the terminal site to the perimeter of the grounds; moving the airport's western perimeter road; bridge and roundabout construction and landscaping works on the surrounding area. The new terminal will consist of a main building, two satellite building, 60 aircraft stands, a multi-storey car park and much more.

The addition of a new airport terminal has implications for local transport and travel to the airport. As a result of this, significant redevelopments to roads and public transport in the area were included in the conditions for the development of the terminal. These redevelopments are to include extensions to the Heathrow Express and Piccadilly lines, a bridge on the A3044 over the M25 and a new railway station exclusively for Terminal 5 passengers.

Designs of the Future

Construction is well underway on the terminal building, and completion is well on schedule for the predicted date in 2008. The design of the terminal building is impressive and futuristic - when completed it will be one of the largest single-span structures in the UK; and will consist primarily of steel and glass, making for stunning views of the airfield from the airport lounges.

Facts and Figures

• Terminal 5 will be able to handle 30million passengers per year, taking Heathrow's total number of passengers to around 90 million. This will make Heathrow the world's busiest airport.


• The new terminal building will be big enough to fit around fifty football pitches across its five floors.


• The terminal's control tower will be the highest in the UK.


• Around 18km of conveyor belt will be used to transport luggage around the terminal when it opens.


• It is the UK’s largest ever single site archaeological project, with over 100 hectares of land requiring investigation.


• So far there has been over 80,000 artefacts found throughout the project, including pottery, worked flint, a hand axe dating back to 3000BC, a wooden bowl and a wooden bucket dating back to 1500BC – 1100BC.