Heathrow uses glitch-free opening of T2 to try and persuade people it can build a 3rd runway

Heathrow’s new Terminal 2 – which cost the airport £2.5 billion – opened on 4th June, with no problems.  It  had a very low key and  unambitious opening, with just 6,000 passengers on the first day of operation – 0.03% of its 20 million passenger capacity – thereby avoiding the chaotic scenes which accompanied the opening of Terminal 5 in 2008. John Holland-Kaye, who takes over as Heathrow’s chief executive next month, claimed the new terminal would help Heathrow’s quest for a 3rd runway, as they managed to do it without anything going wrong (there were months of practices to ensure problems were avoided) and with Heathrow staying open.  Mr Holland-Kaye, who is paid to say this sort of thing, said perceptions and the “political landscape” about Heathrow had changed (no evidence given) over the past 5 – 6 years.  “We have been able to listen much more to the local community and changed our plans to be more acceptable. We have coming together a possibility of building a political consensus around Heathrow”….  But that really isn’t true….

.

 

 

Heathrow Terminal 2 ‘will make Britain more competitive’

Airport boss claims new £2.5bn facility will boost Britain’s economy and help the airport’s campaign for a third runway

Visitors arrive at the new Terminal 2. It has 60 check-in gates and 66 self-check-in kiosks, 29 security lanes, 33 shops, 17 restaurants, more than 7,000 seats, 634 toilets and 42 water fountains

Visitors arrive at the new Terminal 2. It has 60 check-in gates and 66 self-check-in kiosks, 29 security lanes, 33 shops, 17 restaurants, more than 7,000 seats, 634 toilets and 42 water fountains. Photo: Bloomberg
 

Heathrow’s new £2.5bn Terminal 2 will be a “game-changer” for the airport and give the UK economy a competitive edge over France and Germany, its new boss claimed on Wednesday.

The new terminal building opened without a hitch, welcoming just 6,000 passengers on the first day of operation – 0.03% of its 20 million passenger capacity – thereby avoiding the chaotic scenes which accompanied the opening of Terminal 5 in 2008.

John Holland-Kaye, who takes over as Heathrow’s chief executive next month, said the new terminal would help its quest for a third runway, insisting perceptions had changed since the airport’s last plans were rebuffed by the Coalition four years ago.

“What Terminal 2 does is it completely changes the balance because it shows our ambition to completely rebuild Heathrow airport while running it,” said Mr Holland-Kaye. “It is a game-changer in terms of people’s perception of what Heathrow is all about.

Terminal 2 replaces Heathrow’s first ever permanent building, which was opened by the Queen in 1955. The facility will eventually be home to 26 airlines, 23 of which are members of the Star Alliance group of carriers, including Air China, Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines. United was the first airline to start operating out of Terminal 2 on Wednesday but all 26 carriers will have moved by the end of October.

The new building will replace Terminal 1, which will close in October 2015 and eventually be demolished.

Mr Holland-Kaye said: “I think the political landscape has changed massively in the last five-six years. It has changed because people are much more aware of the benefits of jobs and growth that come from the airport, both as it is today and as an expanded airport. We have been able to listen much more to the local community and changed our plans to be more acceptable. We have coming together a possibility of building a political consensus around Heathrow which wasn’t there five years ago, both at a national level and local level.”

Mr Holland-Kaye said Terminal 2 would ensure Heathrow stays ahead of its closest rivals in Europe, Paris Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt, which are all competing for business, particularly for routes to emerging markets.

“Not only do we have better long-haul connections than any other airport in the world, which is a huge benefit for the UK, we also have a world class airport. This will now be a better airport than Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt. It makes us better able to compete as a country against the French and the Germans who are all chasing global growth.”

Heathrow has been preparing for the opening for the last six months to avoid the embarrassment of 2008, when flights had to be cancelled on the first day of Terminal 5’s operation and other passengers faced delays or lost baggage.

Terminal 5 was only completed two weeks before it opened but Heathrow has been road-testing Terminal 2 since last November with the help of 14,000 volunteers from local communities who pretended to be passengers.

The new building is part of a much wider overhaul of Heathrow which will eventually see passengers pass through two terminals, East and West. These will be formed from terminals two and five.

The airport will start looking at proposals for a £4.5bn extension to Terminal 2 in 2018-2019, although the extent of its investment plans will depend on whether Heathrow is selected for an additional runway by the Airports Commission.

Terminal 2 is home to 33 retailers, including John Lewis’s first airport shop. Celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal and pubs group Fuller’s have also opened food and drink outlets at the terminal.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/10875588/Heathrow-Terminal-2-will-make-Britain-more-competitive.html

.


.

Heathrow chiefs’ relief as new Terminal 2 gets off to a flying start

Heathrow bosses breathed a massive sigh of relief today as the airport’s new £2.5 billion Terminal 2 survived its first morning without a major hitch.

Businessman Rao Mohan, 45, was the first passenger to emerge through the arrivals gate less than 20 minutes after his United Airlines flight from Chicago landed at 5.49am. He was greeted by a Beefeater stationed at the gate.

Mr Mohan said: “I fly into London a lot and I am really impressed by what I can see today. It is so bright and clean and gives a good impression of the UK. It is not often you get a Beefeater  meeting you so it is a pleasure to be part of this special day.”

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales was another of the first passengers off Flight UA958. He said: “The new terminal looks great, very impressive.”

Lucille Eckrich, 56, also flew in from the Windy City for a family holiday.She said: “My first impression is that this is a good job. We had no problems with our bags and were through quickly. The pomp and ceremony was nice and this gives a good impression of the UK.”

Airport bosses had been on tenterhooks for the official opening of the building, officially known as Terminal 2: The Queen’s Terminal.

They went to huge efforts to avoid a repeat of the fiasco when T5 opened in 2008.

In one of the darkest chapters in the airport’s history, hundreds of flights were cancelled and thousands of bags went missing.

But today the airport’s chief executive John Holland Kaye said: “It has been a fabulous start. We have learned the lessons of Terminal 5 and are not doing everything at once.

“We have had no problems so far and a lot of hard work has gone into making this start work. It should be said that Terminal 5 is now the best airport  terminal in the world.”

New airports including Berlin, Doha and Hong Kong have all suffered major setbacks on opening in recent years and Heathrow has gone to great lengths to avoid teething troubles, including 180 trials involving 14,000 volunteers.

When it is fully operational the new terminal  will cater for 20 million passengers a year compared with eight  million passengers at the original T2 before it was demolished in 2009.

It will handle 178 flights a day from United, Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa, US Airways, Aer Lingus and Virgin Atlantic Little Red and will be opened by the Queen and the Duke of  Edinburgh on June 23.

But Gavin Hayes of  the Let Britain Fly campaign said the terminal  “does little to relieve the huge pressure on UK aviation capacity” and urged a decision on extra runways.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/heathrow-chiefs-relief-as-new-terminal-2-gets-off-to-flying-start-9484127.html

.


.

This opening is really a huge exercise in expectation management, and the team here has been constantly saying there will be the odd glitch.

That’s not surprising considering that the opening of T5 was an absolute debacle, with lost luggage and delays.

Today Heathrow has gone for a very very soft launch. One airline and 34 flights.

Some critics have said that the airport wasn’t ambitious enough, but no-one is really going to blame Heathrow for starting slow and steady.

And so far so smooth at cavernous, light T2. The worst that the media has been able to uncover so far is some payphones not working.

Heathrow is trying to prove that it is a world-class airport and capable of expanding.

It wants a third runway, and the successful opening of T2 is very much part of proving it is up to the job of delivering new infrastructure.