On June 4th 2014, the new Terminal 2 at
Heathrowopens its doors to passengers for the first time.
The £2.5 billion project marks the latest phase in the airport’s transformation.
It means £11 billion in private investment has now been spent over the last decade to improve
Heathrowand maintain its competiveness as a global hub airport.
This includes Terminal 5, now voted by travellers the world’s best airport terminal for two years running.
Building a new terminal while minimising disruption to passengers and the smooth-running of an airport already at near capacity is quite a challenge.
It has taken a great deal of planning and hard work ever since the old Terminal 2 was closed in 2009.
In its place is a modern, state-of-the-art terminal which will be home to 23 STAR Alliance member airlines (which include the likes of Lufthansa and United Airlines) as well as Aer Lingus, Virgin Atlantic Little Red and Germanwings
Passengers will certainly notice the difference between the old T2, which was showing its age after 50 years of service, and its replacement.
Connection times will be reduced. Natural lighting, clearer sign-posting and modern technology will make it easier to find your way through and be more comfortable while waiting. But we don’t have to wait until next year to see the benefits. They are already being felt around the country.
Heathrowis a major local employer, supporting one in five jobs. Twenty five thousand staff, many from the surrounding communities, will be trained so that they can work at T2 when it is up and running, from airline and handler staff to retailers, cleaners and delivery drivers.
What is often forgotten when looking at major infrastructure projects like T2 is that the benefits in jobs go far wider than the local area.
We estimate that T2 will have directly and indirectly supported 35,000 jobs nationwide, many in engineering, construction and manufacturing.
Our main contractor for the new 1300 space car park to service T2, for example, is the UK firm Laing O’Rourke with the beams and columns made in their Nottinghamshire factory.
Mechanical and electrical engineering has been supplied by Crown House Technologies, with much of the pre-assembly taking place at their site in Wolverhampton.
The 70-tonne beams in the car park ramps were made in Northern Ireland.
And, when you pass from the car park into the central courtyard to enter the terminal you will see Slipstream, a major piece of public art. Slipstream, has not only been designed by Richard Wilson, one of the UK’s leading artists but his spectacular vision has been realised by a UK design consultancy and a Hull-based fabricator.
So T2 will not only deliver for millions of passengers for years to come. It has already delivered for the British economy and for employment up and down the country.
That is why investment in our key infrastructure – and as the UK’s only hub airport
Heathrowis absolutely key to the UK’s future – is so important.