Heathrow Closed Gates versus Open Plan

[Skipness One Echo]

Flying as I do a lot through Heathrow, I have come to regard each terminal as its own airport. They really are like five separate worlds.
So my question is this: Why does BAA continue with the separate gated areas even in the new A380 areas at Terminal 3 when there is never enough room to sit everyone down and any delay involves no toilet facilities or access to food and drink! I was astonished to find this system still in play at Terminal 3 last week, which STILL looks like a building site down the pier with Gates 26-42 as it did in June 2007 when I was last through.

I know T2 and the old parts of T1 have these restricted access gates but T4, the Europier and T5 have no such thing. Yet T3, which for many is their only experience of Heathrow, continues with this madness. Is there a reason why the freedom of the T5 approach would not have worked in the A380 pier? There's sure as Hell not enough room to seat 500+ people in the gate room.
The Business Class traveller next to me was rightly appalled to be trapped in the rat trap at Gate 36 for an hour as the fuellers were late turning up. Is T3 to remain like this forevermore?

Cheers!

[wiggy]

I doubt you'll find a coherent reason, my guess it's probably historic, what was fasionable when T1 was built wasn't fashionable when T3 was built. Add to that the inertia of the BAA and a shortage of cash and I doubt you'll see any change at T3 in the near future....but then again as always I could be wrong.

[Envoy320]

if i were to guess....it is probably due to seperation requirements between inbound and outbound pax.....old terminals....

new terminals tend to be designed to keep them seperate

[Skipness One Echo]

This is partly true in the unrefurbished parts but is being maintained in the main pier where arriving and departing passengers are seperated vertically.

[noseyboy]

Cabin Crew and Pilots love holding pens - the simple reason is we can know if everyone is at the gate. If they are, we can leave on time!

When the agent tells me the final pax figure, if its a gated pen i always ask is everyone in the pen. If they are not, i want to know if those peoples bags are being located. majority of the time the ground agent has already got the boys downstairs looking for them.

If you turn up late to the gate and make the flight, the bags go on. But if your stuck in world duty free looking at junk - we're gone, up up and away!!!!

Always handy if there has been a delay to the arrival of the aircraft on stand. It allows us to get away quicker.

I no there are other reasons, but thats why we love them!!

As to whats happening to T3 - No idea, sorry!!

[AUTOGLIDE]

Just one more reason to avoid LHR.

[Leezyjet]

The closed gates allow the airline to begin the reconcile of passengers before boarding actually starts, so that the overall process is quicker and you can then locate missing passengers sooner.

With an open gate layout, you cannot begin to reconcile until boarding onto the a/c has physically started, so you then find out later about any missing passengers, so the whole offload process is then later.

You are free to leave the gate anytime you wish to go the the toilet or get a drink, just ask the staff and you will either leave your passport or b/pass with them so they know you have left.

99% of the time, people are only in them for around 30 mins, and then it is normally only Economy passengers, as F an C passengers are normally still enjoying the luxuries of the lounge at that stage.

I would guess that when T1 was built, it handled mostly short haul flights, so smaller planes with less people, and open gate works fine, but T3 was built for longhaul flights, with bigger planes and more people, so closed gates hence the reasons above.

T4 and T5 have a mixture of both, and as each was occupied by BA when first opened, I would imagine that the open layout was BA's preference.

Also as the security requirements have changed over the years. Some airlines will not use open plan gate rooms, as they prefer the extra security of a closed one.

:)