Heathrow Terminal Changes As Of 16th April 2020
Due to the ongoing worldwide situation, it was announced a few weeks back that Heathrow Airport would close Terminal 3 and 4.
I had speculated as to what airlines would use what terminals previously. Now we’re getting nearer to the date of the closures, some details are coming out as to who will move where. Good to see that so far, none of my predictions have worked out! Shows how much I know…
As with my other Covid19 related posts, I’ll keep this updated with the latest information as it becomes available.
Terminal 2
| Airline | Previous Terminal |
|---|---|
| Air Malta | 4 |
| Alitalia | 4 |
| American Airlines | 3 |
| Beijing Capital Airlines | 3 |
| Bulgaria Air | 4 |
| Cathay Pacific | 3 |
| China Eastern | 4 |
| China Southern | 4 |
| El Al | 4 |
| Emirates | 3 |
| Etihad | 4 |
| Finnair | 3 |
| Gulf Air | 4 |
| Iran Air | 3 |
| Japan Airlines | 3 |
| Kenya Airways | 4 |
| KLM | 4 |
| Korean Air | 4 |
| Kuwait Airways | 4 |
| Malaysia Airlines | 4 |
| Middle Eastern Airlines | 3/4 |
| Pakistan International | 3 |
| Philippine Airlines | 3 |
| Qantas | 3 |
| Qatar Airways | 4 |
| Saudia | 4 |
| SriLankan Airlines | 3 |
| Virgin Atlantic | 3 |
Terminal 5
No moves as of 16/4
An interesting point that was made by Simon Calder of the Independent is that he could see Terminal 4 closing permanently. That will be interesting. Currently, it is the airports second biggest terminal by area. Which is hard to believe. But don’t forget, it was only just over a decade ago that it was home to almost the entire British Airways long haul operation. This was along with a select few of their European flights. Plus KLM, Air Malta and Canadian Airlines back in the 1990’s.
However, the terminal is a bit of and oddity. Situated outside of the central area, it means that in order to access the terminal, aircraft would have to cross the active runway. This meant that more often than not, in my experience at least, flights would land on time but arrive on to stand late due to not being able to cross the Southern runway. The same was true on departures. An on time departure from the gate would result in a delayed arrival at the destination. Again, this was having to wait to cross the Southern runway at Heathrow in order to depart from the Northern runway.
As to whether I think the terminal will re-open, I suspect it probably will in time. It’s simply too much building to be left abandoned. However, if the demand isn’t there, then who knows. One thing that can be sure is that it will likely re-open after T3.
For the latest information, see:
https://www.heathrow.com/at-the-airport/terminal-guides/which-terminal
“I had speculated as to what airlines would use what terminals previously. Now we’re getting nearer to the date of the closures, some details are coming out as to who will move where.”
It was announced somewhere that all T4 airlines will move to T5 and all T3 airlines will move to T2.
When it comes to oneworld airlines, as of now Qatar & American haven’t yet made an announcement and their flight status checker tools show them both as operating out of T4 & T3 respectively as of next Wednesday for QR and Sunday for AA. Those are ‘the furtherest out’ their tools report on.
At the moment Malaysian are only operating one flight a week between LHR & KUL. Their booking system doesn’t show any other flights between these two points, but that all changes on 1st May – BA to DXB connecting to MH operated by Emirates to KUL. They have a codeshare deal (similar to Qantas) with Emirates to various European cities.
Must have missed that! Although I’m sure I saw yesterday that AA will be moving to T2 – can’t remember where now though.