Heathrow Airport Terminal Shake-Up: What Airlines Could Move?

While it remains to be seen if anything comes of this, the operators of London Heathrow Airport (LHR) are considering a terminal shuffle, which could impact which airlines operate from which terminals. This would be a once a decade shift…

Some airlines may move terminals at Heathrow

Heathrow Airport has reportedly initiated negotiations with airlines, about a review of each carrier’s terminal allocation. We don’t know how far along these negotiations are, and how much will change, but it appears that the discussions are at least happening. As a spokesperson for the airport describes this:

“Occupancy reviews are a normal part of running the airport – it’s how we ensure we make best use of the space that we have. We undertake these reviews usually once a decade to accommodate for changes in airline operations and airport infrastructure – the last review was in 2014 to coincide with the opening of Terminal 2.”

“The objective in these reviews is to make the best use of the limited space at Heathrow, particularly focusing on driving overall operational resilience and matching available capacity with demand – this enables us to protect passenger experience of travelling through the airport.”

Heathrow is one of the busiest airports in the world, and is heavily capacity constrained. The intent with any sort of a review would be to distribute traffic throughout terminals as much as possible, so that there’s an efficient, steady flow of passengers. The goal is also to streamline connections as much as possible. Airline partnerships and strategies change all the time, so terminal allocations are intended to reflect that.

Admittedly Heathrow is capped in terms of its growth, given the airport’s valuable slot system. Currently Heathrow’s capacity constraints aren’t limitations on terminal traffic, but rather, on takeoffs and landings. While there are once again serious discussions about Heathrow getting a third runway, it’s anyone’s guess if it happens. Even if it does move forward, the project would likely take at least a decade.

What terminal allocations could change at Heathrow?

As a basic recap of the current terminal situation at Heathrow (in order of traffic levels):

• Terminal 5 is home to British Airways, and is the airport’s busiest terminal
• Terminal 3 is home to Virgin Atlantic, Delta, Emirates, most oneworld airlines (and even some British Airways flights operate from there), among other airlines, and is the airport’s second busiest terminal
• Terminal 2 is home to most Star Alliance airlines, as well as select independent carriers, like Aer Lingus, and is the airport’s third busiest terminal
• Terminal 4 is home to many independent airlines (EL AL, Etihad, Kuwait Airways, WestJet, etc.), plus select oneworld airlines (Malaysia Airlines, Royal Air Maroc, Qatar Airways, etc.) and SkyTeam airlines (Air France-KLM, Korean Air, Saudia, etc.), and it’s the airport’s least busy terminal

With that in mind, here are a few thoughts:

• It’s unlikely that British Airways would move from Terminal 5, given that it’s the carrier’s home, and it’s already the busiest and most efficient terminal
• We know that Virgin Atlantic desperately wants to move to Terminal 2, which is the airport’s most modern facility, unlike its current home in Terminal 3
• Terminal 4 is horribly underutilized, and there are arrivals gaps of up to 80 minutes, so something needs to be done to improve efficiency there
• As it stands, it seems quite inefficient that oneworld airlines operate from Terminal 3, Terminal 4, and Terminal 5, while SkyTeam airlines operate from Terminal 3 and Terminal 4, so one would think there would be some consolidation opportunities there

We’ll see what, if anything, ends up changing. If you were to start from scratch, presumably there would be more logical ways to go about assigning terminals to airlines. However, the logistics of forcing terminal changes is also really complicated, especially given lounge needs.

For that matter, it’s funny how different terminals are perceived. Terminal 5 is much more modern than Terminal 3, but as a premium oneworld flyer, I’d much rather fly from Terminal 3, due to the superior lounges. So we’ll mark this as “developing” for now.

Bottom line

Heathrow Airport has initiated a review of terminal assignments. These are done roughly once every decade, and the goal is to make terminal operations more efficient, and to consider how traffic levels at each terminal have evolved over time.

The primary issue seems to come down to Terminal 4 and Terminal 3 being underutilized, and figuring out how that can be handled more efficiently. With oneworld airlines operating from three terminals and Star Alliance airlines operating from two terminals, that’s also less than ideal in terms of streamlining connections. Then again, any terminal changes would likely be a huge headache.

What kind of a terminal shuffle do you see at Heathrow, if any?