Don't know where to start with this.

1. Of course it makes a difference; friction in a transaction for any reason drives customers elsewhere. A good aviation example being when small regional airports collect passenger service fees on departing passengers in cash, which is a visible annoyance, rather than through airine ticket prices where it is barely noticed. If Tesco was forced to charge customers a nominal 10p for walking through its doors, we'd hear all about it.

2. The link is misleading. Heathrow is not concerned about £10, it doesn't want transit passengers to have to apply for an ETA at all, because they don't if connecting at eg AMS or FRA.

It makes a difference when marginal flights aren’t making enough money off the connectors to make economic sense.

Well intended perhaps but another example of how one arm of the state fails to grasp that tax revenue depends on and commercial activity which means being competitive to a cut-throat market. Anyone using a flight comparison site will quickly see that the non London options are less admin heavy, more pain free and cheaper, and that's a competitive advantage. I am starting to think electing amateurs (politicians) to run something like a modern complex economy is failing, the model is broken with no good choices across the West.

Not to worry, "You will own nothing and be happy."

QF9 PER-LHR now going via SIN due to fears of Israel vs. Iran war, return remains non stop.

Skip
If you look at Middle East very few flights going up the Iraq Iranian border as normal , all tracking further East over Tehran, then turning West or going South over Saudi.
Cheers
Mr Mac

Since when did BA move alot more destinations over to T3? I thought about 18 months ago they moved pretty much everything bar a few short-haul routes over to T5 with Iberia moving to T3 with other Oneworld partners?

I know Iberia moved back to T5 last summer but there's quite a large number of BA routes including some long-haul back at T3 I wasn't aware of.

I get that Iberia is a close partner of BA and the connecting traffic is no doubt higher than some of the BA routes, but this seems odd considering the likes of American and Finnair happily operate in T3. I don't get why BA would operate certain routes like Oslo and Vienna from T3 to make way for Iberia in their home terminal.

It seems especially odd that the Iberia check in zone in T5 is now directly beneath the BA "Welcome to our home" branding.

Totally agree. It’s a stupid decision and I suspect it’s more because Iberia seem to wear the trousers in the IAG relationship. BA have been playing second fiddle since the odd decision to put the Spanish head of a low cost airline in charge of one of the most respected full service airlines in the business. Building your own terminal to house all your operations and then years down the line moving routes back to T3 to accommodate a lesser Spanish airline is embarrassing to say the least.

Not even close to being true. Iberia operate 10 flights a day from T5, essentially occupying the equivalent of a single gate full time.

Currently BA operate to the following from T3,

• Accra
• Atlanta
• Austin
• Bahrain
• Billund
• Bucharest
• Budapest
• Figari
• Gibraltar
• Gothenburg
• Grand Cayman
• Krakow
• Las Vegas
• Ljubljana
• Luxembourg
• Lyon
• Marseille
• Nassau
• Olbia
• Oslo
• Perugia
• Phoneix
• Prague
• Pula
• Sao Paulo
• Sofia
• Stuttgart
• Turks and Caicos
• Valencia
• Vancouver
• Vienna
• Zagreb

If you can arrange these flights to occupy the same amount of gate space in T5 that Iberia occupy, I’m sure BA would love to hear how you can achieve that.

Iberia are in T5 for convenience, because of the LHR-MAD joint venture the number of connections in both directions. BA are in T3 because they are not even close to being able to fit their operation into T5.

Plus, if I can just add to the previous post by the never-ending RJ.

British Airways did not build their own terminal.

Terminal 5 was built by the BAA for the exclusive use of British Airways. Athough that wasn't assured when it was given the green light for construction, which started in September 2002.

Terminal 5 has 50 gates. British Airways has grown it's network significantly since Terminal 5 was originally planned hence why they also use Terminal 3.

I regularly used to fly VLC / LHR / HKG as the connection was always within T5. If I was doing that now, I would certainly be looking at KLM or Swiss where the connection would be less stressful - I always found transfer between T5 and T3 a real pain.

I’ve flown ARN-LHR-JFK several times lately with the JFK leg on AA from T3 and found the experience to be super easy and straight forward. Straight to the connection gate where I never wait long for the bus and then into T3 just the same as any other connection. Certainly miles better than any connection I’ve had in Frankfurt.

The alleged logic is that those flights with fewer connections are in T3, how true that is I don't know, but they seem to try and put the more point to point stuff in T3. Iberia connects large volumes onto to North America with BA, most of which is in T5, and so large % of long haul connections is why they're back in T5.

I don't entirely disagree with the logic people have posted but the fact is, BA also operates it's own metal on LHR-MAD which would still give a T5 option for customers that really valued it.

The majority of overspill in T3 with the likes of Gibraltar, Olbia and Perugia for example, much of the Eastern European network and certain long-haul routes like Las Vegas makes sense. It's particular city routes like Lyon, Oslo and Vienna however that unquestionably will have greater connecting traffic than some of the short haul capacity they do have in T5 that seems surprising and why BA would forego the added convenience for those markets connecting to it's own services to facilitate a copious amount of MAD capacity with Iberia and other leisure orientated routes. The logic that Iberia is the same management under IAG would mean Aer Lingus and Vueling should also be in T5, but it's obvious why they're not. I guess we agree to disagree.
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"The logic that Iberia is the same management under IAG would mean Aer Lingus and Vueling should also be in T5, but it's obvious why they're not. "

If T5 was bigger they'd be in there as well

"BA have been playing second fiddle since the odd decision to put the Spanish head of a low cost airline in charge of one of the most respected full service airlines in the business."

On 12 October 2020, it was announced that Sean Doyle, CEO of Aer Lingus (also part of the IAG airline group) would succeed Álex Cruz as CEO. And IAG is now 25% owned by Qatar. I'll pass on commenting on "most respected"..................

About time they built T5D. Flew with AA a couple of times out of T5 during their short stay in early 2022 - wish that was permanent!

Indeed that would be the ideal solution but isn't the reality now.

I wouldn't be surprised if eventually well down the line when T2 is massively expanded and replaces T3 and the old T1 complex, which I believe is the longer term plan, that all of BA and it's alliance partners consolidate there and everything else goes to T5, which will be more aging by then.