Shuttle_Endeavour

Looking at google maps of LHR, and I note that on the C gates satellite, on the northern side of the building, what used to be a blank space is now a white roofed building. Is this a part of the satellite?

Sorry for not posting images, but I haven’t mastered that yet! I’m sure someone more Flyertalk literate can post one to show what I mean!

I also wonder how long it takes google to catch up and post a new image, noting the walkway between T2 and the satellite gates has now disappeared.

< Mod edit : insert google 3D image >

Shuttle_Endeavour

Actually I might be getting better at dealing with images after all.



Taken from Karfa’s helpful flight connections thread, this is T5C without the white roofed building.

KARFA

I know what bit you mean, this thing at the north end of T5c https://www.google.dk/maps/place/Hea...3!4d-0.4542955

It was done I think in 2016 - someone said apparently baggage store of some sort.

Naz1

It is a baggage reconciliation building that was built towards the end of 2016/start of 2017 that is used when there are severe baggage issues/delays. It is where the bags will be sorted to be sent on to their final destination after issues such as the snow event on December 10th 2017.

Shuttle_Endeavour

Thanks for your answers. I was always hoping that T5C would be extended to match T5B and to put a lounge or better facilities in there. I guess it’s not to be!

T8191

I’m sure I read here that a T5C lounge facility is on the agenda ... eventually.

Genius1

There's plenty of space within the existing building envelope of T5C for a lounge; in fact there is space safeguarded on the mezzanine (similar to the lounge space in T5B).

squawk

I'm curious as to why this hasn't been done yet. A series of assumptions: i) HAL could be making some money from this space, so ii) BA are paying to keep it empty and unused… which iii) I guess costs considerably less than fitting out the lounge and operating it.

So why bother at all any more? If A North/South and B lounges are capable of coping with the current number of passengers*, and if T5 is more or less at capacity already (seemingly so, given when there is disruption it frequently runs out of gates for incoming aircraft) and won't expand for quite a while...?

Just intrigued by the reasoning behind this, if anyone is aware?

* I know this is a contentious point, especially during school holidays…

madfish

T5B Lounge is often reported as being quiet. Cannot see them ushing to build a lounge at T5C if this one isn’t at capacity.

There’s also a train station/platforms at T5 that aren’t used. I suspect there may be other redundancies within the buildings that may of may not be used in the future.

flatlander

Usage of the T5B lounge, and a T5C lounge, cannot be greatly increased until the average passenger can know their departure gate earlier and so be confident that advancing to T5B or T5C will not leave them stuck. At the moment the gates are not announced early enough to spend any significant time at T5B.

The average passenger doesn't know about the pedestrian tunnel or think you can go back to T5A in them, nor would many passengers want to do so (small children, limited mobility, etc). They think it's a one-way progression from A to B (to C) to big plane to take them away.

So the average passenger's mindset is that you stay in "the departures area", T5A, until your gate is announced and then you go to the aircraft and get on board. This will be further enhanced by their previous experience on short haul at LCC-focused airports like Stansted where gates are never announced earlier than necessary.

The T5B lounge currently serves people whose flight is delayed, the FT-style knowledgeable travel elite, and people who connect in T5B on a long-haul connection in the 90-120 minute range such as USA-India traffic. Without greater advance knowledge of the gate and active work to inform other passengers that there is a lounge at T5B, it will remain quiet.

squawk

Sorry - I should have been clearer in my earlier post: I’m assuming that BA have to pay for the space that was reserved for a lounge in C, which seems like an unnecessary cost if they have no intention of using it.

Given the apparent lack of need for a C lounge, for all the reasons stated above, why are BA still doing this? HAL could turn it into a retail opportunity and charge a decent rent, so presumably whatever arrangement they have with BA is either financially attractive enough to compete, or is a ‘locked in’ or grandfathered first refusal right...?

FlyerTalker688786

This is the key!

There is no need to build a lounge in T5C if no one is to use it!! And to encourage people to use it, you must:
1, Know which gate you are at least 2 hours in advance; and
2, Lounge facility match other locations if not better.

I think with several years of running T5, BA/Heathrow must know well which flight is normally from T5B and which ones from T5C. There is no ham to tell passengers in advance (say 2-3 hours) and make T5A less crowded. In the mean time BA can make T5B lounge a F/J class passenger only lounge to serve all the long haul flights. Lots of potentials but need BA/Heathrow to finally relax the rules on advance gate notification!!

layz

I can't see BA paying for the space that's not used. It's not in the right location for a shop (on the mezzanine level), there's not enough passengers to set up a bar and a restaurant wouldn't work due to most people being in a hurry by the time they reach the C gates.

flatlander

At the moment the thing preventing A380 passengers from being told their gate is in T5C hours before is that it might be a bus gate. Unlikely, but possible. BA doesn't like boarding A380s from gate A10 but it's not unheard of when the scheduling fails to work out well in reality.

Solution: Modify one of the T5C gates to be a bus gate. Then declare that all A380 flights and some other flights will leave from T5C. . Build a lounge in T5C and send all the A380 passengers there. If necessary, bus them from C60something.

13901

The problem has to do with high usage of the stands. A T5A stands sees a change of plane every 50 minutes, a T5B/C every hour and a half (that's data I remember from a project that was done way back in 2011). That means a lot of traffic, be it arriving/departing aircrafts or tows. LHR stands, especially in 3 and 5, are exceptionally busy (if slots are 98% full, stands are 96% or so). This means that it takes little perturbations in the system - an aircraft going tech, a delay, or a plane arriving very early - to trigger a stand change. I play a little game when I fly into LHR: I check the arrival stand on the system as I check in, and then match it when we actually arrive there. Last year, out of 30 arrivals, be it LH or SH, it was different 20 times.

HAL and BA try and show the information 1h30/2h00 ahead of schedule for long hauls, and 45 minutes before for shorts, and it's unlikely it'll ever change. This is as far as it can be shown without degrading the degree of possibility of a stand change or, in other words, without reducing the forecast from "fairly accurate" to "utter divination". Getting people back to, say, B or A from C or B equals delays, and as far as I know can only be done through the walkway, unless you want to do what the Ghostbusters actively discourage and mix the fluxes on the TTS.