Heathrow's new Terminal 2 set to launch on 4th June 2014

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Heathrow Airport has made a confident announcement that the new Terminal 2 will open on 4th June 2014.

Having learnt lessons from the chaotic opening of Terminal 5, operations will be phased in over a number of weeks – something that is relatively easy to do because of the number of different airlines using the terminal. Like Terminal 5, Terminal 2 will also have a satellite terminal – 2B – reachable by shuttle train.

Terminal 2 a

It will be the de-facto Star Alliance terminal, with 23 alliance members operating out of it. It will also include Germanwings (a Lufthansa subsidiary, which makes sense) plus Aer Lingus and Virgin Little Red.

The latter is a little surprising, as Virgin Atlantic will continue to operate out of Terminal 3. British Airways will continue to look more attractive for connecting traffic, with the majority (admittedly not all) of its flights allowing a Terminal 5 to Terminal 5 connection. This may be down to the lack of domestic immigration and customs facilities in Terminal 3.

Terminal 2 b

(It is good news for Virgin Upper Class passengers, though, who will not find the Clubhouse in Terminal 3 swamped with domestic passengers. Hopefully Little Red passengers will, at last, be able to access a decent lounge in the new terminal.)

Once Terminal 2 is open, the phased demolition of Terminal 1 will begin. An extension to Terminal 2 will then get underway.

Terminal 2 c

I’m certainly looking forward to giving it a go – perhaps I will revisit Little Red at that time, who I am due to try for the first time next week.

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This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Dave says:

7 Jun7 June 07:58

How many years do VS have to use those slots for domestic? I remember reading that these former bmi slots only needed to be used for domestics for a certain time. Wonder if Little Red will be enhanced away.

I wonder what the lounges will be like here, I hope the Star Alliance lounge is more similar to the Galleries (minus the gloop), there should be plenty of opportunities for natural light in the terminal. By now HAL must have some interior layouts planned, so we could see where the lounges will be going. I wonder if there was space set aside for a separate bmi lounge in the plans?
- Rob says:
  
  7 Jun7 June 09:17
  
  You’re right, Virgin is only obliged to run Little Red for a number of years. Given the huge price of Heathrow slots, it is worth taking a big loss on Little Red if it means it can keep the slots and move them to longhaul in a few years.
vindaloo says:

7 Jun7 June 09:33

Will BA continue operating domestic flights (and a handful of international ones) from T1 for the time being, or does it have other plans for those? The T1 domestic lounge in particular has always been a bit rubbish (the lounge itself is nice but they skimp on the food) and it would be great to have access to the T3 or T5 lounge network when flying domestic with BA, but I guess it’s a pain to have domestic and international passengers in the same areas (it’s certainly a pain in T1) and perhaps they don’t want to go to the trouble of doing this at T3 or T5?
- Rob says:
  
  7 Jun7 June 10:09
  
  BA will consolidate in T3 and T5. I think there is a plan for a T5D but whether that would allow BA to go wholly into T5 is a different matter. It is probably a decade away anyway.
- Dave says:
  
  7 Jun7 June 18:55
  
  Odd you say that, most of BA’s domestic operation is in T5, they moved out of T1 in 2008/9. There’s only some leftovers from bmi operating there (BHD/DUB), plus some other shorthauls and midhauls that operate on ex-BD aircraft.
  
  So T5 is fully domestic capable, but not sure how they’d handle DUB as that takes a slightly different arrivals route due to it being classed as common travel area (international, but no need for passport control), DUB arrivals get routed in T1 to a different arrivals hall where in theory there could be a customs check if required.
Ed E says:

7 Jun7 June 09:34

If you want to register to be part of the test passenger team during the proving trials, have a look here: http://volunteers.heathrow.com/
Trials run between September 2013 and April 2014 and there will be a huge amount of different roles as testing goes on.
M says:

7 Jun7 June 09:43

Will there be IRIS machines in this terminal?
- Ed E says:
  
  7 Jun7 June 09:50
  
  M, I am almost 100% sure that there will not. (But with UKBA you neve know!)
  
  They announced the phasing out of Iris in Feb 2012 and there have been no new machines installed anywhere since and they have been slowly removing them from airports where they have them. There will probably be a big push for the biometric passport readers instead.
I Kurd says:

8 Jun8 June 14:30

Actually – thank goodness – T2B is connected with the main T2 by underground walkway rather than the pointlessly short shuttle train between T5A and T5B.