Heathrow T5 outshone by new Beijing airport
The new Terminal 5 at Heathrow airport, due to open on 27 March, has been put in the shade by the massive new Terminal 3 at Beijing airport.
The new terminal at Beijing is being described as the biggest building in the world, and is twice the size of Heathrow Terminal 5 and cost about half as much to build. It has also been completed in only four years, whereas Terminal 5 has taken almost 19 years to build since it was first planned.
At a press conference at the new Beijing airport terminal, Dong Zhiyi of Beijing Capital International Airport said: “We did it in four years in order to realise the dream of the Chinese people”. Building work went on around the clock, and unlike at Heathrow there was no public consultation about the new terminal.
Heathrow Terminal 5 is due to open in just a month’s time, but according to Channel 4’s Dispatches programme airport operator BAA is so worried that it won’t be finished in time that it has applied to the Civil Aviation Authority asking it to relax the normal targets regarding security queues and the number of lifts and escalators available for several months.
In the Dispatches programme, BAA director of corporate communications Tom Kelly said: “There will inevitably be teething problems around the introduction of Terminal 5".
British Airways will have sole use of the new Terminal 5 but it is concerned about various aspects of the terminal. Around 45% of passengers will need to be bussed to their airplane. “This is the lowest share of pier-served stands at any terminal in Heathrow,” BA is reported to have said in documents it sent to BAA.
Terminal 5 has been built at a cost of about £4.3 billion pounds and there was a four year public consultation about its construction which cost around £80 million. Richard Rogers was appointed to design the new terminal in 1989, but it was not until 2001 that planning permission was finally granted.
Written by: Nick Purdom
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