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Heathrow's Terminal 5 Route transfers - update


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BRITISH Airways' long-haul flights will start being transferred to Heathrow airport's ill-fated new fifth terminal on 5 June, the airline has announced.

 

Eight routes, including services to Cape Town and New York, will move from terminal four. A total of 50 such routes were due to switch on 30 April.

 

The other routes being transferred next month are to Bangalore, Beijing, Cairo, Lagos, Phoenix and Abuja in Nigeria, which account for about a quarter of BA's operations in Terminal 4 .

 

 

http://news.scotsman.com/uk/June-date-for--delayed.4070339.jp

 

 

 

jj.....

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Eight routes, including services to Cape Town and New York, will move from terminal four. A total of 50 such routes were due to switch on 30 April.

 

The other routes being transferred next month are to Bangalore, Beijing, Cairo, Lagos, Phoenix and Abuja in Nigeria, which account for about a quarter of BA's operations in Terminal 4.

Thanks, coxswain.

 

For clarity:-

  1. Only New York JFK is being transferred on 5 June. Newark will remain at T4 for the time being.
  2. There are a number of long-haul routes already operating from T5, which will remain there: Hong Kong, Johannesburg, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, Tokyo and Vancouver.

If it helps anyone, I'm also posting information to this thread on the Cruise Air forum when it comes out.

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I'm on a BA flight from Boston. We were supposed to go into terminal 5 and out of terminal 5. I received an email this week saying they had been changed to terminal 4. I suppose that could change in the next 2 months but for now Boston flights are going into terminal 4.

 

Hope that helps someone.

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Am I assuming correctly that things are running fairly smoothly right now? Not hearing bad stories must be a good sign. Hopefully it will continue that way for our late July and early August passages through Heathrow in connection with our cruise.

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

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I just checked the BA site and it says that the flights to/from Philadelphia are at Terminal 4 until further notice. I didn't receive any notice of this change. I will continue to check BA's site until we leave.

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Am I assuming correctly that things are running fairly smoothly right now?
AFAIK, things are running very smoothly at T5. Last night, I was reading the evidence that was given by BA and BAA to the Transport Select Committee of the House of Commons (our lower House of Parliament), which had some interesting things in it. Amongst other things, the current T5 baggage system performance appears to be better than at T4, and continues to improve.

 

The next big test will be 5 June, when this next phase of moves is implemented. It's about 25% of the remaining T4 operation. If it goes smoothly, there can be much more confidence about the further phases.

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Was in Terminal 5 yesterday (Sunday) - it was like a ghost town at 11:00 a.m.

No queue for check-in at all, (in fact half the manned check-ins were empty).

No queues for customs, even the cafe had plenty of spare seats.

Eveasdropping, people were getting their luggage and out within an hour of landing.

Seems to me Terminal 5 is now preferable to the other terminals at Heathrow.

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For anyone who is interested in the nuts and bolts, there are two things available on the web which might be of interest.

 

Parliament has now published the uncorrected transcript of the oral evidence given on 7 May 2008 to the House of Commons Transport Select Committee by the chairman and chief executive of BAA and the chief executive of BA. The evidence from BA was a great deal more informative about what went wrong than the evidence from BAA.

 

And towards the end of the slideshow for the analyst presentation of the year's financial results on 16 May 2008, there are some graphs showing the day-by-day performance of T5 since its opening, showing the continuing improvement punctuated by occasional blips (mostly involving bad weather). You can also read the transcript of the presentation itself which is probably a great deal more illuminating than the slideshow, although I haven't yet read it.

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was reading the evidence that was given by BA and BAA to the Transport Select Committee of the House of Commons . . . . the current T5 baggage system performance appears to be better than at T4, and continues to improve. The next big test will be 5 June, when this next phase of moves is implemented. It's about 25% of the remaining T4 operation. If it goes smoothly, there can be much more confidence about the further phases.

 

THANKS for the update and encouraging report! I read some of that report on what happened (or didn't!). It seemed as if a number of "smaller things" all went wrong and/or were mismanaged. It added up to a huge mess. Glad to hear they've figured much of it out and that it is working well now. Look forward to seeing the new mega building later this summer. Nearly five billion dollars in construction is lots of cost. Terry in Ohio

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The next batch of moves from Terminal 4 to Terminal 5 has now been announced. These will take place on 17 September 2008.

 

The routes concerned are:-

  • Abu Dhabi
  • Accra
  • Bahrain
  • Baltimore
  • Buenos Aires
  • Chicago
  • Dallas
  • Dar Es Salaam
  • Doha
  • Entebbe
  • Grand Cayman
  • Houston
  • Kuwait
  • Luanda
  • Lusaka
  • Mauritius
  • Mexico
  • Mumbai (Bombay)
  • Muscat
  • Nairobi
  • Nassau
  • Newark
  • Philadelphia
  • Rio De Janeiro
  • Sao Paulo
  • Tel Aviv
  • Toronto
  • Turks and Caicos
  • Washington

The remaining routes at Terminal 4 will move at the end of October. These routes are: Boston, Calgary, Chennai, Delhi, Denver, Dhaka, Dubai, Islamabad, Kolkata (Calcutta), Montreal, Seattle and Shanghai.

 

See this page on the BA website for more details.

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A reminder about the BA terminal changes to take place tomorrow, 5 June 2008.

 

This is the first chunk of the remaining long-haul flights which were to have moved on 30 April 2008, but which were deferred after the chaos at the end of March.

 

The following routes are moving from T4 to T5 tomorrow:-

  • New York (JFK only)
  • Abuja
  • Bangalore
  • Beijing
  • Cairo
  • Cape Town
  • Lagos
  • Phoenix

These join the following long-haul routes that are already at T5:-

  • Hong Kong
  • Johannesburg
  • Los Angeles
  • Miami
  • San Francisco
  • Tokyo
  • Vancouver

All other long-haul routes remain at T4 for the time being.

 

All short-haul routes are already at T5, except the following which remain at T1 until 17 September 2008:-

  • Barcelona
  • Helsinki
  • Lisbon
  • Madrid
  • Nice

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  • 1 month later...
The remaining routes at Terminal 4 will move at the end of October. These routes are: Boston, Calgary, Chennai, Delhi, Denver, Dhaka, Dubai, Islamabad, Kolkata (Calcutta), Montreal, Seattle and Shanghai.
The date for these moves has now been announced: 22 October 2008.
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Wonder which routes as stated by BA they will close down this winter either temporarily or permanently.
We may find out more next week. Q1 results to be announced at 0700L on Friday 1 August, and there is a possibility that winter route plans will be announced then as well.

 

The rumour mill suggests no longhaul reductions, with a 5% reduction in ex-LON shorthaul. But, as always, believe the rumour mill at your peril.

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Yes that will be Terminal 4 for Newark, out and back.

 

If you leave Newark on the morning flight it's a 767, and the 2 evening ones are 777. Coming back the morning is 747, afternoon, 777, and early evening is a 767.

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Now there's a question to stir up a hornet's nest.

 

Factors to throw into the pot:-

  • Where you're flying from
  • Schedules and flight times
  • Which airlines fly the route, and to which airport, and with which aircraft, and whether you have any preferences
  • What airport/airline facilities you particularly need/want to use, if any
  • Whether you want/need to stay overnight at the airport immediately before your flight out, or immediately after arrival - and if so, which terminal of which airport your flight might arrive at or depart from
  • Where in London you are going to/from, and how you plan to get there or from there to the airport, and at what time of the day on what day of the week

In my experience, by the time you've worked through that list of questions, the pure Heathrow/Gatwick question is pretty academic.

 

I mention "with which aircraft" because I surmise that you are considering Emirates. I believe that some EK flights are operated with Airbus A330s and some with Boeing 777s. EK operates its 777s in an unusual 10-abreast configuration; I think that all other scheduled operators use the conventional 9-abreast. For this reason alone, I would not fly an EK 777 anywhere, unless there really was no other option; but if one option was take an EK 330 it would be acceptable. An approach like that might then get me onto a Gatwick flight rather than a Heathrow flight.

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Which would you recommend flying into and out of, given a choice:

 

London Gatwick

or

London Heathrow?

 

We won't be flying until December, so all current problems should be well and truely ironed out by then.

 

Are both the flights with the same airline? If not I would choose on airline rather than Gatwick or Heathrow.

If they are it really depends on which terminals they use at both airports.

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Sorry, I should have known to provide you with more information, with your detailed knowledge.

 

  • We will be flying from Florida, USA to London (possibly BA or Virgin).
  • Then we'll be flying from London to Geneva, Switzerland with BA (now that you've helped me make the final destination decision).

Hence, we have a choice of Gatwick or Heathrow, which is rare, I know.

 

We have travelled via both, but not since the latest baggage debacle.

 

However, we travelled via Heathrow, after the bombing where you couldn't take any hand luggage all the way to Australia (my daughter) and minimum hand luggage, briefcase width, business class (me). How they handled that situation, turned us off Heathrow for some time.

 

If Gatwick, do you know whether you can still check your luggage in at Victoria Station when you're travelling via BA? I'll make some enquiries, if you don't know, as we used that facility years ago.

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