Terminal 4 celebrates 25 years

Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 4 has celebrated its silver jubilee, 25 years after it was opened by Prince Charles and Princess Diana in April 1986. 

With 8.3m passengers last year the throughput of T4 is much the same as Birmingham and Luton airports' stand alone operations.  Since it opened 284.6m passengers have flown through its gates.  Controversially it is thought by regular Heathrow users in many ways better than the 21st century T5, with very easy access, a large drop-off area, and a simple landside and airside operation.  It does suffer from rather long walks to and from the more distant gates. 

Terminal 4 is significant because it serves the world’s most unusual and far-flung cities.  It boasts 38 airlines flying to 53 destinations including Baku (Azerbaijan), Mumbai (India) and Taipei (Taiwan).  Building links to emerging markets have been highlighted by British Chancellor George Osborne as a key priority for British businesses.

As part of Heathrow’s £1bn a year investment programme, Terminal 4 has been massively improved in recent years and was recently ranked Europe’s ‘most improved terminal’ in a survey of leading airports by Airports Council International (ACI). www.baa.com

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