London Evening Standard/London
Heathrow bosses breathed a massive sigh of relief yesterday as the airport’s new £2.5bn Terminal 2 survived its first morning without a major hitch.
Businessman Rao Mohan, 45, was the first passenger to emerge through the arrivals gate less than 20 minutes after his United Airlines flight from Chicago landed at 5.49am. He was greeted by a Beefeater stationed at the gate.
Mohan said: “I fly into London a lot and I am really impressed by what I can see today. It is so bright and clean and gives a good impression of the UK. It is not often you get a Beefeater meeting you so it is a pleasure to be part of this special day.”
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales was another of the first passengers off Flight UA958. He said: “The new terminal looks great, very impressive.”
Lucille Eckrich, 56, also flew in from the Windy City for a family holiday. She said: “My first impression is that this is a good job. We had no problems with our bags and were through quickly. The pomp and ceremony was nice and this gives a good impression of the UK.”
Airport bosses had been on tenterhooks for the official opening of the building, officially known as Terminal 2: The Queen’s Terminal. They went to huge efforts to avoid a repeat of the fiasco when T5 opened in 2008.
In one of the darkest chapters in the airport’s history, hundreds of flights were cancelled and thousands of bags went missing. But yesterday the airport’s chief executive John Holland Kaye said: “It has been a fabulous start. We have learned the lessons of Terminal 5 and are not doing everything at once.
“We have had no problems so far and a lot of hard work has gone into making this start work. It should be said that Terminal 5 is now the best airport terminal in the world.”
Passengers check in for their flights at the new Terminal 2 at Heathrow Airport in London yesterday.