British Airways offering Tickets for First Day of Heathrow Terminal 5 Operations

On Tuesday British Airways offered customers a chance to buy a moment of history with tickets for the first flights from London Heathrow’s Terminal 5.

Approximately 75,000 tickets were made available for passengers wanting to travel on one of the 380 flights that will operate into and out of the £4.3 billion building on day one.

The new terminal will be used exclusively by British Airways customers. The first flight to take off from Terminal 5 will be BA302 to Paris and the first arriving flight will be BA026 from Hong Kong.

Robert Boyle, British Airways commercial director, 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.”

Tickets for travel on the opening day, March 27, 2008, are now on sale on ba.com

The new terminal will offer an airport shopping mall, quality restaurants and around £60 million worth of British Airways lounges.

Collectively known as the ‘Galleries’, the lounges aim to set new standards in comfort and luxury for the airline’s First, Club World, Club Europe and Gold and Silver Executive Club customers.

Combined, they will cover 15,000 square metres making it one of the world’s largest airline lounge complexes. Facilities will include space to relax, work, eat and drink and a new travel spa. They will host up to 2,500 people.

British Airways' move to Terminal 5 will be the most complex in the airline’s history. The move is planned in four phases between March 27, 2008 and October 2008. More than 90% of British Airways flights will operate from Terminal 5 with the remainder being co-located with oneworld alliance partners in the nearby Terminal 3.

Phase one will involve moving 70% of British Airways flights to Terminal 5.

Phase two is planned for the end of April 2008 when a further 20% of flights, including longhaul flights from Terminal 4, will move to Terminal 5. Tickets for these flights will go on sale from May 10, 2007.

The move to Terminal 3 will happen in two phases. The remaining small number of shorthaul 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.

Terminal 3 will also benefit from investment in customer facilities, including a new dedicated British Airways lounge and will be upgraded as part of BAA’s Heathrow development plans.

The Move

Phase 1 – end of March 2008: Just over 70% of British Airways flights at Heathrow will move to Terminal 5 from March 27, 2008 including:

- All longhaul flights from Terminal 1
- All shorthaul flights from Terminal 1 (with the exception of Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon and Nice, Helsinki and flights operated by franchise partner GB Airways)
- All shorthaul flights from Terminal 4 and
- Flights to and from Miami, which currently operate from Terminal 3.

Phase 2 – end of April 2008: A further 20% of flights will move to Terminal 5 from April 30, 2008, including:

Longhaul flights to and from Terminal 4, (eg New York, Washington, Delhi and Cape Town) with the exception of flights operated as part of the codeshare agreement with Qantas (Bangkok, Singapore, Sydney and Qantas flights handled by British Airways).

Phase 3 – end of June 2008: Flights to and from Barcelona. Madrid, Lisbon. Nice, Helsinki and GB Airways franchise services, which will move from Terminal 1 to Terminal 3 at the end of June 2008.

Phase 4 – end of October 2008: BA/Qantas codeshare flights (Bangkok, Singapore, Sydney and Qantas flights handled by British Airways) will move to Terminal 3 at the end of October 2008, as part of the move by all oneworld airlines.

Source: www.asiatraveltips.com