Last BA flight from Terminal 3.

[SpringHeeledJack]

A question for the panel....

Having a chat with an old friend the other night, they remembered that we had shared a flight from LHR to BKK in a BA Tristar in 1986 (?) and as we were boarding the flight, perhaps early in the evening, the dispatcher said that this was the very last flight by BA, before they moved lock, stock and barrel to the ultra modern Terminal 4.

I do recall that the terminal was like a ghost town and the movers had already dismantled much of the check-in furniture. I'm thinking that this was around early April 1986. Anyhow, would anyone know, were we on the last BA flight from T3 ?



SHJ

[Airclues]

SpringHeeledJack

Your flight would have been on 11th April 1986. I operated the first 747 to depart from T4 on 12th April (to JFK).

Dave

[777fly]

Maybe not that exact day. As I remember there was a gradual transition of flights from T3 to T4 from April onwards. I operated an L1011 G-BHBM Bahrain-BKK on Aug 4 1986 which may have come out of T3 . Did you fly LHR-BKK direct?

[sycamore]

People might soon be echoing your last from any terminal ????

[411A]

Did you fly LHR-BKK direct?
If so, that would have been at the extreme range for the -500 aircraft.

[SpringHeeledJack]

Did you fly LHR-BKK direct?

As you surmised it would've been a bit of a stretch for the 3 holer. We stopped in Bahrain (or Abu Dhabi, i can't remember to be honest) for a tech stop.

Your flight would have been on 11th April 1986. I operated the first 747 to depart from T4 on 12th April (to JFK).

That seems to fit in with when i thought it might be. The Thai festival Songkran (sp?)was taking place within a day or so of us arriving. Kudos to you for the honour of operating the first flight out of T4.



SHJ

[22/04]

Well they're operating from T3 now. For how long (if ever) were they completely gone.

[Mike6567]

I operated G-BHBR on 11 April 1986 BAH-BKK (then on to KL).
I noted thunderstorms (for a change) were in the area of BKK.
However of more interest (to those around at the time) was that the outgoing captain from KL was in a bad mood as someone had nicked his hat!

[SpringHeeledJack]

I noted thunderstorms (for a change) were in the area of BKK.

Now that I do remember, the cloud became so dark grey/black in the last 15mins that it seemed like night looking out the window.

As an aside, one member of our group (business linked to BA) was sitting on a jump seat and decided to unwrap a boiled sweet to alleviate his poor ears from pressure. He emerged chastised on landing saying that 'he'd been given an earful' by someone as the sound of the wrapping paper was very similar to an electrical short and what with the weather and landing it was unwelcome in the extreme :)



SHJ

[Mike6567]

That's very interesting. I do not remember if we had anyone on the jump seat, though it was not unusual then, or anything about a sweet wrapper.
However I did note one of the other crew members got a bit uptight as he had a windscreen shatter about 18 months previously flying in Cb conditions.

[SpringHeeledJack]

Thanks for the replies, especially from the crew of said flight. I'm still none the wiser if the flight we were on was the last BA flight from T3. Would anyone here have records of the schedules to perhaps confirm or deny this supposed status ? I'm assuming that (as today) the Bangkok flight wouldn't be the last out daily before the operational curfew commenced, but as the dispatcher said it to us, I had no reason to doubt his word. We (group) came on last as we were de facto working for BA and were escorted through the whole departure process (mini VIP style :))

Thanks again chaps




SHJ

[Farns744]

SHJ,
Well the LHR-BKK flight still departs from T3 every night. So the answer to your question, to be pedantic, is no.

[SpringHeeledJack]

Well the LHR-BKK flight still departs from T3 every night. So the answer to your question, to be pedantic, is no.

What ? Pedants on pprune ? Perish the thought :}

To my detriment I had no idea that BA had ever re-commenced ops from/to old T3. They moved their LH fleet from T3 to T4 in 1986, so when did they creep back into T3 (with their own metal, not codesharing) ???

I'm still hoping that some list-maker reading these posts might have the answer to my original question



SHJ

[Groundloop]

BA currently operate their last few 757's (and maybe other types) from T3 as the 757 cannot take baggage containers and all T5 baggage is containerised.

[Golf Charlie Charlie]

BA resumed a very limited operation out of T3 around 10 years or so ago if my memory is right. The reason was said to be due to insufficient gate capacity at T4. There was usually one or maybe at times two specific designated destinations so passengers would know where to turn up. For example, I do recall Miami flights for a while went out of T3. They were usually 747 aircraft and they used gates on the inner northern pier of the terminal.

[BBK]

I have definitely seen BA operating out of T3 for several years, or at least BA a/c parked there. Normally it seemed to be 747s.

However, there are definitely quite a few destinations currently served out of T3 to Spain and Italy and most probably others. Someone told me that the 757 could not operate out of T5. Before I get shot down that's just what I was told!

Certainly the 320 and 757 operate from T3 and use, ironically, old T1 stands.

ps

Groundloop: sorry should have read your post.