British Airways Unveils New Terminal

British Airways showed off its new terminal at Heathrow Airport on Tuesday, a light-flooded, gleaming white modern facility with some of the latest technology, a first-class lounge with a cinema and a five-story-high wall of windows offering a view of Windsor Castle.

Terminal 5 has 112 stores and restaurants and cost $8.4 billion. It took British airports operator BAA seven years to build as part of an effort to improve the world’s busiest international airport in time for the 2012 London Olympics.

The terminal, designed to make travel easier and more comfortable, features state-of-the-art equipment such as X-ray machines that don’t require travelers to remove their shoes and belts. Unmanned check-in kiosks can also screen a passenger’s passport or scan a visa.

First-class and business lounges are unusually spacious, have a spa and are luxuriously furnished with chandeliers, wine racks and, in one, even a cinema. There are no fast food restaurants in the new terminal but it does offer a Tiffany’s jeweler and a Prada store.

Terminal 5 will include a quarter-mile-long main building at the west end of Heathrow for domestic and short-haul flights, and two nearby satellite buildings that will primarily handle long-haul services. The buildings will be connected by an underground shuttle.