The new £4.3bn Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport opened its doors to passengers on Thursday with the first plane landing in the early hours of the morning.
Under the command of British Airways' first female pilot Captain Lynn Barton, 51, flight BA026 from Hong Kong touched down at 4.42am - the first of more than 300 planes to use the terminal on its first day.
Mark Bullock, managing director of Heathrow airport operator BAA, said: "This is an incredibly exciting day for us and one which marks a turning point for Heathrow."
Built for the exclusive use of British Airways and with state-of-the-art facilities, T5 is expected to dramatically improve the airline's punctuality and baggage performance.
But BA and airport operator BAA have warned that it could take time for the new terminal to "bed down".
Hundreds of demonstrators are expected to stage a "flash mob" protest against the airport's expansion at around 11am.
advertisement
Made up of local residents and environmental activists, the protest at the new terminal will, organisers claimed, be a "peaceful and legal event".
The protesters are demonstrating against plans to build a third, short, runway at Heathrow and a sixth terminal.
Have you seen the new T5? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
Print
Email this
Comment
