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Heathrow Airport has today confirmed that London Heathrow airport’s newest terminal, Terminal 2, will open to the public on 4 June 2014.
The new terminal will house all Star Alliance member airlines at London Heathrow. These include United Airlines, Air Canada, Singapore Airlines, SAS, Swiss and Air New Zealand.
The terminal will also house non-alliance members Germanwings, a subsidiary of Lufthansa, and Aer Lingus, as well as Virgin Atlantic’s new domestic operation, Little Red.
Virgin Atlantic will not be moving into the new terminal and will stay in Terminal 3. Once the move is complete it is also expected that British Airways will consolidate its operations that are currently across Terminals 1, 3 and 5, into Terminals 3 and 5.
Like Terminal 5, Terminal 2 has a satellite terminal and specially commissioned artwork. Clearly, lessons have been learned from the opening of Terminal 5 in 2008 and the disastrous decision by BA to move its entire short-haul operation into the terminal from day one of operation. The move of the 26 resident airlines will take place in phases over six months.
The Star Alliance has suffered a setback at Heathrow over the past 12 months with former member bmi being merged into British Airways, giving Oneworld alliance members over 55% of Heathrow’s slots and Star Alliance members losing vital feed from bmi’s short-haul network. It will be interesting to see what Star Alliance members offer in terms of passenger facilities to compete against BA and Oneworld.
An invitation is also open to take part in volunteer trials before opening.
