Heathrow has opened its new satellite terminal T5C, allowing an extra three million British Airways customers to access Terminal 5 via an air bridge each year.
The £340 million satellite section of T5 has 12 boarding gates, of which eight are triple bridges which are crafted to cope with the new fleet of 12 Airbus A380s which BA will take delivery of in 2013.
BA says that as T5C sits closer to the other terminals at the airport, it will give the airline greater flexibility in managing its 4000 flights a week.
There is also a new dedicated transfer baggage tunnel which links T5C with Terminal 3, which is due to open in 2012.
British Airways director of operations Andy Lord said: “We know how much our customers love flying through Terminal 5 and our operations continue to break performance records on a regular basis.
“Terminal 5 has transformed our ability to offer the very highest standards of customer service which our passengers rightly expect for punctuality, baggage handling and relaxing before their flight. We hope that T5C will improve our overall performance even further.”
T5C is linked to the rest of Terminal 5 by the existing underground transit system, with journeys taking just over a minute.
