BA @ T3 LHR

[Leftofcentre2009]

Why do the BA Gibraltar flights depart from Heathrow T3 and not their own dedicated T5?

[Direct DIKRO]

I believe all the T3 flights are no longer in T5 as they have the smallest amount of passengers connecting onto other BA flights:-)

DD

[edi_local]

The don't have enough space in T5 for everything, so T1 and T3 are also used.

Any of the ex-bmi routes which haven't made the move to T5 are still at T1 (AMM, HAJ and RTM), as are DUB and BHD as I don't think T5 is set up for Irish or Northern Irish flights. TLV and CAI have moved to T1 also.

[champair79]

Leftofcentre2009,

Direct Dikro is right in that the short haul A320 flights from T3 have statistically the smallest number of connecting passengers in the BA short haul network bar a few routes that have managed to be squeezed into T5 such as Larnaca.

Bangkok is the only long haul from T3. This is a legacy from the JSA with Qantas when the flight used to do LHR-BKK-SYD. The Singapore flights have already moved to T5. Bangkok is being re-timed for the winter season and will move to a 3-class 777-200 as the route isn't performing adequately to keep it on a 747 - in fact on some days the premium cabins act as a giant staff bus to go and see the 'delights' that Bangkok has to offer... There is space at T5 for the re-timed flight so only short haul will remain at T3 from winter 2013.

T1 ops are with the ex-bmi aircraft. The fleet has got so big that they can't all fit at T5. Most of the ex-bmi aircraft are loose-loaded for baggage and cargo so they're kept at T1 as the ground staff have the facilities to better deal with these types of aircraft (that's not to say the aircraft can't operate from T5 - they have done occasionally).

Dublin and Belfast will remain at T1 for the foreseeable future as T1 is equipped to deal with Irish immigration procedures.

Hope that's of some help.

Champ

[Ancient Observer]

"in fact on some days the premium cabins act as a giant staff bus"

When I used to fly in the premium cabins, they always were giant staff buses, especially from HKG and SIN.

However, BA was marginally less bad than Qantas.

[WHBM]

It's beyond irony that, having repeatedly banged on about how T5 would be the solution to BA's inconvenient split operation between T1 and T4 that applied up to a few years ago, and having put up with inconvenient T5 internal terminal arrangements such as merging domestic and intercontinental all together, considerably extending the time taken to get to domestic aircraft, BA have now ended up with their operations substantially split across not two but three terminals.

[Hartington]

I think BA were always aware that they would not fit T5 with only the main building and one satellite. They needed the 2nd one to move everything.

Than they bought British Midland and the equation changed.