Not sure when the last time I travelled through terminal-3 at Heathrow was. I’m sure it’s been quite a while. In comparison to the new T-5, T-3 is a tight, claustrophobic shopping mall under renovation with seats shoehorned into every space. This is the T-3 departures lounge today, on what I was told was a quiet day.
T-3 was first opened in 1961 as the “Oceanic Terminal” and was built to handle all the long haul flights out of London. It was only used for departures initially, an arrivals hall was not built until 1970, about the time it was renamed Terminal-3. Spend any time there and it’s clear it’s 50 years old, was never designed for the 14-million people it handles every year and has seen a number of expansions to the 39 gates it houses today.
T-5 was opened a couple of years ago and is used exclusively by British Airways, this picture is from last September. When it’s finished it will have over 70 gates, deal with 35 million passenger a year and has the biggest airport lounge I’ve ever seen. Inside it is huge with large open spaces and is a massive contrast from T-3.