HEATHROW TERMINAL-5 CASE STUDY

INTRODUCTION

Heathrow is a major European hub for international flights, and it competes with
other major airports such as Paris-‐Charles de Gaulle Airport, Frankfurt Airport, and
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. In 2008, Heathrow was the busiest airport in Europe in
terms of total passenger traffic, ranked third for plane movements, and fourth for
cargo traffic. Heathrow has the highest number of international passengers and is
used by 90 airlines serving 179 destinations worldwide.

Heathrow Terminal 5 was one of Europe’s largest construction projects in terms of

cost. The scale of construction required, along with the complexities in design and
construction coordination, were enormous. As a result, managing a project of this
size required careful and extensive planning, along with innovative ways of
minimizing risk for all stakeholders involved.

It had taken over 26 years to plan, design, construct, and test Heathrow Terminal 5,
costing over 4.2 billion pounds. And since March 14, when Queen Elizabeth formally
declared Terminal 5 ready for business, construction crews and terminal personnel
had worked feverishly to prepare the terminal for its first day of full operation. Willie
felt extremely proud that the project had been delivered on-‐ time and on-‐budget,
and was confident that BA had done everything it could to prepare for this
monumental day.

Advanced computer modelling was used to test the design of the baggage handling
system. When it was ready for operations, BAA employed real-‐world tests by putting
400,000 bags of different size, shape and weight through the system, including load
tests of up to 12,000 bags in several two-‐hour periods.

Heathrow Airport contributes significantly to Great Britain’s economy. The airport

employs over 72,000 people, with an additional 100,000 related to its operation
across the United Kingdom. Aside from creating employment opportunities,
Heathrow’s international transport links result in accessibility to international markets
that attract business to the United Kingdom.

British Airways is one of the world’s premium international airlines serving nearly 150
destinations. It is one of only eight carriers to fly to all six permanently inhabited
continents with extensive international flight schedules. The number of destinations
reaches to more than 300 worldwide when considering BA’s code share and
franchise partners. In 2008 the airline carried 35.7 million passengers. British
Airways also operates a worldwide air cargo business largely in conjunction with
scheduled passenger services.

In the UK, British Airways is the largest airline based on fleet size, international
flights and international destinations. The headquarters is located in Waterside, near
the airline’s main hub at London Heathrow Airport. Terminal 5 at Heathrow is
dedicated to British Airway’s exclusive use since 2008.

In 2008/09, BA earned nearly £9 billion in revenue. Passenger traffic accounted for

87.1 per cent of this revenue, while 7.5 per cent came from cargo and 5.4 per cent
from other activities.
 OBJECTIVES

 To Increase the capacity of passengers flying per year by 30 million.

 The vision of the project was to transform Heathrow into the world’s greatest
airport.

 To construct a Terminal-5 building, inherits all modern facilities while meeting

the Environmental standards.

 To construct sixty new aircraft stands inclusive of stands designed for the
most advanced aircrafts like Airbus A380.

 To develop the Rail infrastructure by extension of Heathrow express, London

underground Piccadilly Line and creating six platform Rail station.

 To construct a state-of-the-art Control Tower, designed to meet the demands

of Air traffic control at Heathrow in the future.

 To improve the road infrastructure, new spur road to the M25 linking the
terminal to the national road network.

 To divert the two rivers around the airport by incorporating many ecological
enhancements.
 PROBLEMS

1. Training issues: the new system's complexity, staff training and preparation
was clearly lacking. BA acknowledged the critical importance of training in the
kind of business transformation program that T5 represents.

2. Parking: BA and baggage handler staff had difficulty getting into the parking
lot on the opening day and had a hard time finding a space to park. This
caused delays in getting to work.

3. Transportation: After parking and getting to the building, poor signage did
not allow staff to properly navigate the building and get to their posts. Doors
that should have opened were locked. Moreover, out of 275 lifts, 28 were not
working. These issues led to staff appearing late at work. To make the list of
transportation issues longer, T5 also experienced transit failures between the
main terminal and the satellite terminal.

4. Security: Staff ID’s failed to work with T5’s computer systems, preventing
users from logging into terminals.

5. Baggage Handling: "We have a world-‐class baggage system that is going

to work perfectly on day one" BAA claimed one week before the terminal’s
opening. Yet, the bagging system crashed around 11:00 am on the opening
day for reasons unknown at the time. Staff had to manually reconcile
baggage. As a result, flight delays and cancellations were inevitable.
6. Communication Breakdown: Passengers were not informed about the
delays resulting from the above-mentioned operational failures; no
information was on monitors or websites to keep passengers informed. This
increased passenger frustration, which exacerbated the situation.
SOLUTIONS

1. Firstly, management should provide the proper training to the staff

members and there should be proper arrangement for any emergency
happening like the small issues occurred in baggage, security system,
lifts etc.

2. As they were aware about the rush at terminal -5 so they should

arrange multi-storey parking and there should be emergency exit to
solve the problem of rush of vehicles.it can in reducing the traffic and
help in saving the time of people also.

3. They should check properly every small problem in gates, elevators,

lifts and as during the trail there was small issues and they ignored it,
although it can take some more time but the satellites, transportation
everything should be perfect.

4. In the race of showing their project on time and in budget even they
didn’t make the security system which is the crucial part of any project.
They should go for alternate option if their security system failed, they
should have backup plan.

5. Although they made excellent baggage system which might be

strongest but they should also go for the plan that if automatic system
got failed then they can manage not go for manual which seems worst
at that time, because it is very time consuming and not feasible at
airport.
6. The proper communication problem which is the basic requirement for
airport should be adequate, because if there is any problem at airport
then at least the passenger should come to know about it and will
come which was creating rush at airport. They should have emergency
communication system if the system got failed.

RECOMMANDATIONS

 British Airways which was going to become the largest and for which
14 years’ time was taken should be in proper manner because too
much occurred to much cost of the project.
 They should go for the delay of the project for the proper checking and
trail although they already consumed lots of time in executing the
project, but hurry in the project reduces the quality of the work.
 They should not compromise with the budget it might raise but the
quality of the work and system should be up to the mark.
 As they already know that this is the largest Terminal which will face a
huge crowd and so many vehicles therefore, they should made proper
arrangements of parking and their multiple entry-exit.
 They should provide the information about the delayed or cancelled of
flights which was very crucial to the passenger.
 They should have emergency or backup gate card if automatic system
got failed.
 They (“Willie Walsh” CEO) should not ignored the small issues of
security system and other which were occurred at the trail day.