British Airways (BA) has opened bookings for 27 March next year, the day that it transfers most of its services to Heathrow”s Terminal 5. Approximately 75,000 tickets are available for passengers wanting to travel on one of the 380 flights that will operate into and out of the ”4.3bn ($8.49bn) building on day one.
The new terminal is the largest airport development ever undertaken in the UK and will be used exclusively by BA customers. The first flight to take off from T5 will be BA302 to Paris, scheduled at 06:20 and the first arriving service will be the BA026 from Hong Kong 06:35 and due in one hour earlier when the winter timetable is in force.
BA commercial director Robert Boyle, said: ”British Airways customers buying these first tickets for Terminal 5 will have the chance to be part of this once in a lifetime opportunity. Terminal 5 is going to be a great advertisement for Britain ” and this group of customers will be able to say, ”I was there when it all began.””
He went on: ”The new terminal will transform the flying experience for millions of British Airways customers. The entire airport experience at Terminal 5 has been designed to make the ground journey faster, smoother and simpler. It will exceed the best you can find at any other airport.”
BA”s move to T5 is the most complex in the airline”s history and is planned in four phases between 27 March and October 2008. More than 90% of BA flights will operate from T5 with the remainder being co-located with oneworld alliance partners in the nearby Terminal 3.
This first move, phase one, will involve relocating 70% of BA flights at Heathrow to the new terminal. Phase two is planned for the end of April 2008 when a further 20% of flights, including further long haul services from Terminal 4, will move to T5. Tickets for these flights will go on sale from 10 May 2007.
The move to Terminal 3 will happen in two phases. The remaining small number of short haul flights will move from Terminal 1 at the end of June 2008 and the BA/Qantas codeshare flights will move from Terminal 4 at the end of October.