Heathrow Terminal 5

Heathrow is the busiest international airport in the world. It is also the most profitable and is the flagship of a very profitable BAA pic. Heathrow, however, is close to capacity. It has handled over 50 million passengers in the last 12 months and is still growing fast - at a rate of over 8% in the last few months, despite the existence of Gatwick and Stansted, our other two excellent major airports in the South East of England.

Terminal 5 will add capacity of 30 million passengers a year and so long as it receives Government approval in 1997, after what will be a very long Public Inquiry, it will open in 2002. Meanwhile, Heathrow will continue to grow and will probably be handling 60 mppa in the year 2000, by a combination of the introduction of major new facilities, including a huge new connections or transfers building, and management ingenuity, even though the long term capacity of a four terminal Heathrow is 50 mppa.