| London Heathrow Terminal 4 | |
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London Heathrow Terminal 4 is an airport terminal at London Heathrow Airport, serving the British capital city of London. It is situated to the south of the southern runway next to the cargo terminal, and is connected to Terminals 1, 2 and 3 by the Heathrow Cargo Tunnel.
Built at a cost of £200 million, Terminal 4 was opened by the Prince and Princess of Wales on 1 April 1986.[1] Until 2008 it was used mainly by British Airways. It became the Heathrow base for airlines of the SkyTeam alliance after British Airways vacated Terminal 4 on 29 October 2009 and moved to Terminal 5.
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The terminal was initially designed as a facility for short-haul 'point-to-point' traffic, to compensate for its relatively long distance from the airport's central terminal area (CTA). The layout of the terminal, with passenger boarding gates very close to the check-in and security halls, was designed to facilitate rapid movement of passengers through the building (a requirement for short-haul, business-focused flights). Upon opening, it boasted other innovations including the complete segregation of arriving and departing passengers and a departure concourse over a third of a mile long.[2]
Lord King, then Chairman of British Airways, demanded that Terminal 4 be solely for the use of British Airways in order to fulfill the airline's ambition of hosting all its flights in one terminal (an ambition that has still not been realised even with the opening of Terminal 5 in 2008). A similar demand was made on the North Terminal at Gatwick.
Thus Terminal 4's distance from the CTA and design were ill-suited for British Airways' long-haul operations and could be seen as a contributor to the airline's dire operational performance, particularly in the years up to Terminal 5's opening in 2008. For example, passengers had to transfer between Terminal 4 and the CTA by bus rather than by a short moving walkway (as between Terminals 1 and 3 for example) and once inside Terminal 4, the gate areas are not large enough for the 400+ passengers waiting to board the waiting 747s. Passengers' baggage also had to make the trip by van, sometimes resulting in the luggage being mislaid, although this problem was somewhat alleviated in the late 1990s by the construction of an automated transfer tunnel between the CTA and Terminal 4.
Following the transfer of most of British Airways' flights to Terminal 5 during 2008, Terminal 4 is undergoing a £200m upgrade to enable it to accommodate 45 airlines and serve as the base for the SkyTeam alliance. The forecourt has been upgraded to reduce traffic congestion and improve security and an extended check-in area opened in late 2009. Piers and departure lounges are being renovated and a new SkyTeam Alliance passenger lounge for premium passengers is now open. A Malaysia Airlines Golden Lounge is now open as well. Gulf Air has also opened a Golden Falcon Lounge. Two new stands to accommodate the Airbus A380 have been constructed, and a new baggage system has been installed.[3]
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Aeroflot | Moscow-Sheremetyevo |
| Air Algérie | Algiers |
| Air Astana | Almaty |
| Air France | Paris-Charles De Gaulle |
| Air France operated by Airlinair | Paris-Charles De Gaulle |
| Air India | Delhi, Mumbai |
| Air Malta | Malta |
| Air Mauritius | Mauritius |
| Air Seychelles | Mahé, Zürich |
| Air Transat | Seasonal: Toronto-Pearson |
| Alitalia | Milan-Linate, Rome-Fiumicino |
| Arik Air | Abuja [resumes 12 December], Lagos |
| Atlas Blue | Tangier |
| Azerbaijan Airlines | Baku |
| Biman Bangladesh Airlines | Dhaka, Dubai |
| Bulgaria Air | Sofia |
| China Airlines | Taipei-Taoyuan |
| China Eastern Airlines | Shanghai-Pudong |
| Delta Air Lines | Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Miami, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York-JFK |
| Etihad Airways | Abu Dhabi |
| Gulf Air | Bahrain |
| Jat Airways | Belgrade |
| Jet Airways | Delhi, Mumbai |
| Kenya Airways | Nairobi |
| Kingfisher Airlines | Delhi, Mumbai |
| KLM | Amsterdam |
| Korean Air | Seoul-Incheon |
| Kuwait Airways | Kuwait, New York-JFK |
| Libyan Airlines | Tripoli |
| Malaysia Airlines | Kuala Lumpur |
| Olympic Air | Athens, Thessaloniki |
| Qatar Airways | Doha |
| Rossiya | St Petersburg |
| Royal Air Maroc | Casablanca |
| Royal Brunei Airlines | Bandar Seri Begawan, Dubai |
| Saudi Arabian Airlines | Jeddah, Riyadh, Dammam, Madinah (sesonal) |
| Sri Lankan Airlines | Colombo, Malé |
| Syrian Air | Damascus |
| TAROM | Bucharest-Henri Coandă |
| Tunisair | Tunis |
| United Airlines | Houston-Intercontinental, Newark |
| Uzbekistan Airways | Tashkent |
Terminal 4 is best accessed from Junction 14 of the M25 motorway via the A3113 and then the Southern Perimeter Road. It is also accessible from Central London via the A4 and then the A30. There is a short stay car park directly opposite the terminal and a long stay car park on the other side of the twin rivers.
Terminal 4 is served by Heathrow Terminal 4 tube station on the Piccadilly Line of the London Underground and by Heathrow Connect trains at Heathrow Terminal 4 station. Heathrow Connect provides a stopping service to London Paddington also stopping at Heathrow Central station (There is no charge for train journeys between Terminal 4 and Central stations). Heathrow Connect is intended to be taken over by Crossrail when Crossrail eventually opens, and would have 4 trains per hour compared to the current 2 trains per hour.
The Piccadilly Line has up to 6 trains per hour (about every 10 minutes) in the direction of Cockfosters station via Central London. Trains run via Heathrow Terminals 1,2,3 station. They may wait at Terminal 4 for up to 8 minutes. Although the journey takes longer, fares are cheaper than on Heathrow Connect services.
Terminal 4 is served by some local buses and coach services.
As of 2009, bus services include:
* - Buses marked with an asterisk run as part of the London bus network on behalf of TfL
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