That might be so EESDL but, I suggest that, even if the British government had been able to create a new from scratch London airport in the 1980s or 1990s - it would still be out of date today. The security issues (real or imagined the impact is the same) and the criss-cross of routing - not forgetting that everyone now wants the txfer to be lightning fast and hassle free, whilst taking their large carry-on?

Every pax wants everything and for a lower price - somewhere they will be dissapointed.

Inter-terminal transfer is something that Heathrow does particularly badly. The train link between terminals is provided by London Transport (or TFL) services and not something provided by the airport itself. The frequency of once every 15 minutes from T5, for example, is a laugh in this day and age where many airports provide a better service once every 5 minutes or more frequently

The reason for the ID check is that domestic and international pax are intentionally mixed, mostly to allow domestic pax to access the shopping.... the ID check is to stop international pax swapping boarding cards with domestic pax

more info here
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...ngerprint.html

ID check is to prevent arriving international passengers ostensibly connecting onto another international flight from simply boarding a domestic flight and missing the UK Border check on arrival in say, Glasgow. The whole rationale came about when they stopped segregating domestic travellers as they wanted them to spend in the same shops as transit passengers. Hence when a domestic passenger arrives off the street into LHR, they get their face scanned to make sure they don't simply off-load, leave via the UK border and allow someone with no right to enter the UK to use their boarding card on a domestic route and avoid border controls.
The case of T2 domestic to T5 domestic is laboured, *BUT* the numbers are tiny as you're talking about connecting EI's BHD or FlyBe's ABZ/EDI/IOM/(JER as CTA)/NQY to BA's ABZ/BHD/EDI/GLA/LBA/MAN network, and there are easier ways to get from A to B on that list rather than via LHR.
btw as soon as you got on a bus at Flight Connections you were mixing with other international passengers and so as a non sterile environment, you'd need to re-clear security to Uk DfT standards at T5 unlike at T5 where domestic arrivals on the 500 stands to about 506 can go upstairs directly to departures as they're kept in a sterile area within UK security standards. #phew

For many years it was possible to arrive at T1 CDG and finish out in the street (sans luggage) without ever seeing immigration or customs - I think I did it 3 times..................... I think that was a signage problem allied to lack of supervision on one important door...............

What was weird was that they knew all about it - when you went up to a guy in Customs and explained he'd shrug and take you through the "behind the scenes" bit of Immigration and leave you in front of Immigration.. most odd

Good Luck, Ive been a frequent flyer into/out of Heathrow since 1978. I recently arrived into T3 and had 50 minutes to transfer to T5 for a connecting (Domestic) flight. It was a true NIGHTMARE. Everyone in T3 made it their job to hinder me for the process. T3 is the worst terminal IN THE WORLD

Not quite but certainly not anyone's idea of what a modern terminal should be (see LHR T2)

just extension after extension cobbled on where they could fit them in at the time

In need of major tear down and rebuild IMHO

Which is in fact the plan.

When Dave? They were talking about 2019 when all the flights wee supposed to have moved to T2 but it still looked pretty busy last week when we taxied by..................

Back in 2014, the published timescale (all contingent on R3 going ahead) was:

R3 operational (2025)
T6A Phase 1 (J) (2026)
T6B Phase 1 (K) (2026)
T6A Phase 2 (J) (2027)
T6B Phase 2 (K) (2027)
T2A Phase 2 (C) (2032)
T2E (D) (2033)
T2D (E) (2034)
T2A Phase 3 (C) (2036)
T2C (A) (2036)

The letters A to J indicate the elements of the "toast-rack" (terminals and satellites) in order reading east to west. K is the T6 satellite adjacent to R3.

So don't hold your breath. :O

so since there is no chance of R3 by 2025..................... T3 it is for the next 10 years................