Passenger experience
We have a clear and ambitious vision for the future of our airports and air travel as a whole. It’s a vision of bright, comfortable surroundings, fewer delays and less congestion. But this transformation will take time and more investment from us.
In capacity constrained airports and an ever-changing security regime, holding our level of service is a major challenge. The opening of Terminal 5 is the key for transforming Heathrow, Britain and Europe’s biggest airport. For the first time in a generation there will be spare capacity at the airport. Consequently, we will be able to demolish Terminal 2 and replace it with a brand new terminal – Heathrow East – designed to better adapt to change, such as that caused by the recent security alerts. We have ambitious plans to refurbish Terminals 3 and 4 so that by 2012, Heathrow will be virtually a new airport.
Across London, at Stansted, we are busy developing plans for a second runway and terminal and expect to submit a planning application later this year. By 2015 we hope to have the runway and terminal open for business, providing much needed new runway capacity for London and South-East England and enabling the airport to handle an additional 35 million passengers a year.
We have ambitious plans for our other airports too – in Glasgow we have started work on the £30 million ’Skyhub’ development which will improve security and airside facilities for passengers. In Aberdeen, we have plans to lengthen the runway which will allow bigger planes to use the airport and expand the choice of destinations.
All our airports have produced master plans in line with the Government’s 2003 Aviation White Paper, indicating how we intend to meet demand for air travel until 2030. All in all, we plan to spend around £10 billion in the next ten years on airport improvements.
