Revealed: the British Airways flights moving to Terminal 3 in two weeks

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• AspirationalFlyer says:

  27 Oct27 October 08:26

  Sofia flights used to be T5.

• Ian says:

  27 Oct27 October 08:32

  Sounds like Heathrow haven’t used the hiatus to do something sensible like sort out sterile connections between terminals then? For those few of us in the provinces where domestic > international connections are the norm, it’s a right pain in the rear to have to clear security twice on departure and increases the connection time no end (the published minimums are invariably never long enough). Here endeth the Wednesday morning moan.

  • John says:

    27 Oct27 October 08:34

    Well they paid out dividends so have no money to do anything useful

  • Sam G says:

    27 Oct27 October 10:08

    They could do something like Virgin Red used to do and pull up a bus to the gate and take you directly to T3 so wouldn’t really need any physical improvements. But based on these routes & limited other OW flights currently I can’t imagine there are huge numbers of people needing to transfer per flight so I guess it isn’t top of their list to do.

  • Track says:

    27 Oct27 October 11:08

    No sterile connection at T5/Heathrow terminals ever. It is more likely to do with requirements from the government.

    There is a massive security checks infrastructure for all T5 connections airside — to process/queue a few hundreds at a time — and all arriving passengers are considered “dirty” regardless of.

    People get very surprised how cumbersome it is, because they think Heathrow is the modern airport. Which it is, just not for connections and we don’t have automated airside transit.

    • Sam G says:

      27 Oct27 October 11:39

      There are sterile connections from domestic flights T5 toT5 int. But most other EU & beyond hubs offer a much wider sterile connection program so this does put Heathrow at a disadvantage. Not sure if it’s their decision or CAA/govt though

  • ChrisBCN says:

    27 Oct27 October 12:40

    I have been given a car between my international arrival at T5 and taken direct to T3, didn’t need to clear any security. This did used to exist for some pre-covid, maybe it will return for short connections.

  • ChrisC says:

    27 Oct27 October 12:43

    The MCTs are OK for the vast majority of people.

    If lots of people failed to make their connections they they would likely increase the MCT (because people missing flights means delays in arrival which means possible compo) which would then reduce the number of connections available to you.

  • Anna says:

    27 Oct27 October 13:01

    I think the issue is that the UK doesn’t fully trust the security checks at foreign airports (with some justification!) and therefore requires all passengers to go through UK security at the first point of departure. It’s a total pain, I concede, but these days I try and fly directly back into MAN whenever possible to avoid T5. I enjoy the experience of CW/CE on the way out, but on the return just want to be home asap.

    • Ian says:

      27 Oct27 October 13:08

      Grudgingly, I accept that intl > domestic connections is always likely to require going through security again. It’s leaving from MAN to connect at LHR and being screened twice if I’m changing terminals that irritates. I think the fact that there is a sterile connection for T5 to T5 (domestic > intl) shows that it’s not a CAA/government issue, but rather a Heathrow one.

    • riku says:

      27 Oct27 October 14:18

      It’s certainly a heathrow issue. If they ran a bus taking DOMESTIC T5 arrival pax to T3 it could drop them off directly in departures. No need for them to clear security, just like they do not clear it for domestic -> T5 departures. But LHR could not be bothered to run this kind of bus (for most passengers – I have had a minibus doing this connection but only because I have a BA gold card).
      Compare this to MUC where they have split the shuttle train into three separate sections for schengen/non schengen/unclean arrivals, so allowing free transfer for all types of passengers.

    • Sam G says:

      27 Oct27 October 15:04

      Plenty of airports trust arrivals from “trusted ” countries – e.g. Schiphol if you arrive from EU, US, UK or Singapore (maybe others) you can go directly to your next gate only passing immigration (if required). I’m not sure if it’s a govt/CAA issue or just a Heathrow design issue – Schiphol had huge adjustments to it’s arrangements to allow arrivals to be filtered through connections accordingly. But you’d have thought it was considered during T5/T2 builds being that they are pretty recent

• Simon says:

  27 Oct27 October 08:39

  Have BA dropped flights to Alicante altogether? Nothing bookable after 1 November from any Heathrow terminal and no summer schedule from Gatwick.

  • Sam G says:

    27 Oct27 October 10:05

    They’re still in the schedule for S22 from Gatwick but just off sale. BA were negotiating with their pilots which they’ve now successfully done. I assume they’re finalising any other contracts & arrangements at Gatwick before putting them back on sale

• Pete M says:

  27 Oct27 October 11:04

  You’ll probably need a PCR test 48hrs before, a lateral flow on arrival and to sit in your own cocoon not eating or drinking 🙂

• Kipto says:

  27 Oct27 October 15:19

  Going to krakow in April. Booked the flight months ago and it was always shown as T3. I’ve always flown from t5 and find the car park in the terminal handy to get in and out of for motorway access. Is it an option to park in t5 and get the tube to t3 or just park in t3 ?

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    27 Oct27 October 15:31

    All the terminals have their own short stay car park attached to the terminal and also cheaper options that are a bus ride away. Only T5 has pod parking.

    T2/3 are easily accessed from the M4, and are well signposted from the M25. If you prefer you can take the tube or HEX free to T3 from T5 but I think there’s no advantage in doing so.

• Liam says:

  27 Oct27 October 22:01

  Speaking of T3, I went to the Centurion Lounge yesterday morning. Thankfully only about 20% full, which I’m sure will change, and very nice to spend 45 minutes in there. I didn’t even notice that there was no natural light. My main gripe was that it wasn’t well signposted until you got close to it. I haven’t been in the BA lounge in T3 for a few years but based on memory I would take the Centurion Lounge every time.

• QFFlyer says:

  28 Oct28 October 06:00

  What about Galleries F, will that be opening?

• Sarah says:

  30 Oct30 October 11:54

  We have a flight booked next June to Faro, which states the flight will go out of T3. Will all Faro flights be leaving from T3 in future and if so when does it start?

  • Rob says:

    30 Oct30 October 19:41

    Faro is going to be split between T3 and T5, handily …

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