jamesbrownontheroad

The very first time I passed through ARN (despite being an architect by training) I got a little disorientated at the similarity of T5 piers D (gates 11-24) and E (gates 1-10).


Swedavia plan of ARN T5. From left to right, piers T5D, T5E and T5F.


From the outside, they appear to have been built at the same time and to the same original design. They certainly look identical from overhead.

I'm guessing that it was only several years after initial construction that T5D received three small extensions on the south and north sides to accommodate more retail and services; likewise two on either side of the base of T5E (now accommodating a smaller duty-free shop, the busiest Max burger bar in Sweden, and some toilets).

Both T5D and T5E have an upper level on level 4: in T5D it carries inbound passengers from the non-Schengen gates at the end of the pier to passport control. In T5E there is also a double-height space at the end of the pier, but it doesn't have any connection back to the main terminal (the SAS Gold Lounge is in the way) so there's no possibility of segregating inbound and outbound passengers.

Reading between the lines of both English and Swedish Wikipedia, I can't find any evidence of what the airport looked like or how it was organised when the North Terminal first opened. Were these two piers intended to be basically identical? Was T5D always the only one configured to accept and segregate international/non-Schengen arrivals?

Thanks for any insights.

oliver2002

T5 used to be these two piers till the early 2000s when the F pier was added. One primarily handled longhaul, the other 'international' (mainly European) traffic. Since Sweden only dropped their border checks for Schengen arrivals in March 2001 the entire T5 was bi level. I recall arriving from MUC at gate 5 in 2003 or 04 and we were led to a level higher for a security check before being allowed to come back down to the departure level near gate 1. That entire area is now the SK Gold lounge.

RedChili

T5 was built in 1976. Gates 1-10 was the A-pier, and gates 11-20 was the B-pier. They were almost identical.

I was frequently at ARN between 1989-1991, and it was really hard to tell the difference between the piers. The only concrete evidence that I can remember was that there was a SAS EuroClass lounge between gates 3 and 5, and a lounge that I believe was run by Luftfartsverket between gates 13 and 15. BA had their own lounge in the corridor between both piers. Both piers had a cafeteria, a candy store, a perfume store, and a tobacco and alcohol store. The entire terminal was international, so you had to pass through passport control to get to and from airside.

Gate 2 was torn down then the F pier was built and they needed a corridor between A and F.

I'm not sure what time frame you're thinkikng about. Back around 1990, SAS and their partners mostly had departures from the A pier. SAS flights to EWR and NRT departed from A. SAS had a close relationship to Thai, which used to fly from gate 7 with a 742 on BKK-ARN-CDG-ARN-BKK. SAS was in the European Quality Alliance with Finnair, Swissair, and Austrian, and they also used the A pier.

The B pier was frequently called the charter pier. Sterling and Scanair had lots of flights from B, but there were scheduled flights, too. American Airlines 763 to ORD, Pan Am A310 to JFK, Tower Air 741/742 to JFK and MIA, Trans World L1011 to JFK, and BWIA L1011 (can't remember the destination). I can distinctly remember flying Air Europe with a 733 from gate 11 to LGW in 1990, and Lufthansa on an A320 to FRA from gate 14 in 1991.

From memory, that was due to security problems at German airports. I can remember a single LH flight from FRA where I had to undergo the same procedure. I believe that was in March 2005. The same has happened on a couple of occasions since then with flights from BUD and CPH when those airports had problems with non-compliance to EU security rules.

When Sweden entered the Schengen zone, the airport built a separate extra-Schengen area on top of both piers (gates 7-10 and 17-20). When the F pier was built, there was no need anymore for the extra-Schengen area on the A pier.

oliver2002

My time was 2000-2006 It seems with the completition of the new F pier most of the widebody handling moved there except for some odd airlines at the tip of B (now D gates 17-20). As Sweden joind Schengen, SAS founded the *A in 1998 and BA/AY/etc moved to T2, T5 also evolved

RedChili

SAS long-haul has been at the F pier since it opened. Emirates has always been at F. From 2003 and onwards, Thai used gates 17/18. I believe they moved to F some time between 2012-2015. CO/UA has mainly been from the old B pier. Norwegian long-haul mostly departed from B. I've seen Malaysia at both B and F. Air China has been F. Qatar and Ethiopian used mainly B in the beginning, but recently they've mostly been at F. Singapore was at F. US Airways used B during their short stunt at ARN. Delta has been mostly F. Iran Air shifted back and forth between the two piers. Charter widebodies have been all over the place. Gates 7/8 have been used extensively for charter flights to Greece and Spain with A333 and B763.

oliver2002

I think the F or not F widebody gate is linked to the fact if the airlines are ground handled by SGS or Menzies.

AirborneLocksmith

As well as being in T2 for a while before the service ended.