Atlanta is one of the worst airports in the USA! Why string out all of the terminals in a line from the front door? Why the ridiculous security check after collecting your bags on arrival? The catering is rubbish and TSA/immigration 'welcome' diabolical. There are many better airports in the USA than Atlanta.

Would it not also be fair to say Atlanta benefits from one thing Heathrow does not .. space?

I certainly hope LHR ends up looking like those images as it is one of the most confusing airports to get around. T5 is a dream, T4 is also ok, T3 I have never used, but have heard mixed things about it and T1 is more or less an abomination at the moment.

The general layout does not follow any logic at all and is not at all pleasant to use. They have gate 2 next to 8 and 77-84 next to 5, and then Gates 16-21 are between 77-84 and 39-47. Even on the new bit which will become T2 doesn't make a lot of sense as they are numbered 47A,B, 48, 49 and then it switches to 31 and starts to count down again until you get the old Europier and you see gate 41 next to 39!!!! :mad:

It makes no sense, it's no wonder passengers get lost and miss flights. I say these things about T1 from both a passenger and staff point of view! I know it's the oldest living terminal at the moment but it really is the best example of BAA's lack of organisation and general "that'll do" approach to some of their airports!

My only gripe would be that if LHR is reduced to 3 mega-terminals (or 2 mega terminals and T4) that they will surely renumber them to just be 1, 2 and 3 and not have 2, 4 and 5 which would just be stupid.

The gates are based on the stand numbers, however in T1 it was changed as per below :
Gate 1 was BMI serving Stand 102
Gate 5 was the BA lounge serving Stands 101, 103, 105
Gate 7 also serves Stand 105
Gate 8 is the BMI lounge area and serves :
8A Stand 104
8B Stand 106
8C Stand 109
8D Stand 108
8E Stand 110
8F Stand 112

The "old Novembers" is the steel construct for the Irish and some domestic flights now used by T1 international. They are gates 174-192, of which 188 onwards is now used by Terminal 3 and has had the airbridges removed.
Confused? See the link below.
http://www.ead.eurocontrol.int/eadba...2012-05-31.pdf

The new bit is only half built remember, so the West side will run Gate 31-39 and the East side 41-49. At the moment we have 31-33 and 47-49 in use, with both 33 and 47 able to have two narrow bodies parked so they have two gates. It's easier to see the stands on the chart as they are 233L and 233R, 247L and 247R. These stands can either have one heavy aircraft like a B747 or two smaller aircraft like an A320. Hope that helps a little.....
T3 is the same where some of the A380 gates are split so they can park two smaller aircraft.

Quote: "Hi Frank, the quote function is second from the end on the RHS when you reply. Copy (CTR+C) what you want to quote then tap the QUOTE function then paste (CTR+V) what you copied into the middle."

Thanks for that, Skipness, can never get it to work!

Excellent "before" and "after" diagrams from ara01jbb,the "messy sprawl" in the "before" diagram clearly shows how the original constructions had to fit in with the rwy patterns of the old RAF airfield. In the "after" diagram, LHR2 looks a very odd shape and appears to have no landside! Poor old LHR3 has disappeared altogether.

Quote: "My only gripe would be that if LHR is reduced to 3 mega-terminals (or 2 mega terminals and T4) that they will surely renumber them to just be 1, 2 and 3 and not have 2, 4 and 5 which would just be stupid."

It's entirely possible that by the time this is all done, that LHR1 and LHR3 will be the two terminals in the expanded LHR north of the A4, near rwys 10L/28R and 10R/28L. Flying pigs anyone?

Yes, that's true and a valid benefit to the airport operator and airline users. However, the fact remains that from a passenger point of view Atlanta is significantly worse than some others.