Heathrow Terminal 2 opens quietly to avoid mishaps

Heathrow bosses are hoping that a "soft" opening of the new £2.5 billion Terminal 2 (T2) means there will be no repeat of the myriad mishaps which marred the west London airport's Terminal 5 (T5) launch six years ago.

T2 opens tomorrow with the first flight - a United Airlines service from Chicago - due to land just before 6am.

But, mindful of the T5 debacle in March 2008, Heathrow development director John Holland-Kaye and his team have decided to open T2 in stages. Words and photo: PA.

To start with, United will be the only carrier operating the new terminal and, for the first few days, T2 will only operate at 10% of the capacity it will reach by the autumn.

By October, United will be have been joined by more than 20 other airlines, including Air China, Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa. Virgin's domestic operation, Little Red, will also be using the new terminal.

The phased opening is in contrast to the disastrous T5 start-up when the then Heathrow management attempted a near-complete operation from the opening day.

The result was travel chaos, with flights badly delayed, huge queues and thousands of bags going missing.

T2 boasts 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.

By the end of the year T2 will be handling passengers at the rate of 15.8 million annually and it has been built to take up to 20 million.

T2 replaces the old Terminal 2 at Heathrow which closed in 2009 after 54 years of service.

Gavin Hayes, director of the Let Britain Fly campaign, said: "The opening of T2 is a cause for jubilation, demonstrating what can be achieved by private sector funding of nationally-significant infrastructure.

"This follows Gatwick's announcement of large-scale planned improvements to its surface access infrastructure."

He went on: "But this is just one small step in the right direction. The refurbishing of an existing airport terminal at London's busiest airport does little to relieve the huge pressure on UK aviation capacity.

"Meanwhile, the UK is falling further behind international rivals because industry cannot invest in urgently-needed runways. Only when politicians stop dithering and make a clear decision on the UK's aviation future can the really important work begin."