Originally Posted by
SpeedbirdLHR
This has nothing to do with other terminals being full and T5B/C are hardly under-utilised. Moving AA to T5 means more BA in T3 so there will be no freeing up of capacity there.
This move was in discussion long before COVID as it’s always been a desire within the AJB to have some degree of co-location.
This has everything to do with T3 being full at peak periods of the day. Moving short haul into T3 and long haul (AA) into T5 addresses the imbalance at certain periods of the day - T3 is essentially empty overnight without BA short haul, and then full between 9am-1pm and in the evening. Virgin are also planning a larger operation at LHR than pre-Covid and T3 is/will be home to pre-C19 T4 residents Etihad, Westjet, Biman, Korean Air, Kenya Airways, Royal Brunei and Aeromexico, as well as Skyteam short haul.
If this was just to do with BA/AA being under one roof, then AA would've never moved back into T3 when it reopened. There's been plenty of space in T5 for the entire AA operation since March 2020.