I travelled through Terminal 5 and survived
30 March 2008
When I first got the travel details for a long haul flight, I thought this is either going to be something to brag about, being one of the first to do T5 or it would be a nightmare.
In the end, it was neither.
I had seen the news reports, of course. I checked that the flight was still to go ahead before I set off, it was two hours later than originally scheduled. The first impressions were of a attractive, sleek terminal. The scale alone makes you draw breath, it is 176m x 396m; its baggage claim hall alone is twice the size of the Pompidou Centre All glass and shiny and new. There is an awful lot of glass at T5, which makes everything light and airy, and reduces the lighting costs. Richard Rogers’ architects have created a check-in area that looks as if more than six people might visit on any one day. They have created space instead of blocking up areas with kiosks/lines/booths. Norman Foster has contributed some stylish lounge furniture in the departure lounges. (Boy, did that come in handy for short-haul passengers in the first few days!) In the loos, of which there are plenty, the wash areas are hotel-style chrome and porcelain. The whole terminal theme is a light, modern European terminal (it has open plan gates, similar to European and US airports) and with views of the airport and beyond; on a clear day you should be able to see Windsor Castle, they tell me.
There are innovative features too. Admirably, the terminal is also heated using waste heat from an existing heat/power plant and 85 per cent of the waste during construction was recycled, we are told.
Automation is a defining feature of the new terminal. At security, the trays for your jacket and laptops are on automated conveyor belts and returned to one of three positions so no fights over stacked plastic trays and no carting them around yourself. Alas there, the enjoyment ends.
The most –publicised innovative feature is the computerised baggage handling system which can handle 12,000 bags/hour. Unfortunately, no-one checked the rate that human baggage handlers can unload them, which is where the problems began. If BA had a notion of what the customer experience will be, it would have conducted a few more trial runs and discovered earlier this incompatibility. When bags are whipped along at 30MPH, it must produce an exaggerated version of the panic you experience at the supermarket checkout, when the cashier is merrily swiping every barcode and throwing them at you before you have even opened a shopping bag. Only this time it’s hold luggage not a weekly shop that has to be packed. More importantly, trial runs would given BA a taste of travellers’ frustration in the first week of opening. If you can empathise with your customers, you serve them better. It is good working practise on projects like this to operate 50 per cent of the service with 100 per cent of the staff for any problems to be efficiently dealt with with minimum delays. In the end, this is close to what ended up happening at T5, with dozens of flights being cancelled in the first few days of opening. With this system, though, it cost BA money in compensation which must hurt a lot more than the risk of a loss of kudos by opening modestly but efficiently instead of going for the all-singing, all-dancing opening with a troupe of ill-rehearsed singers and dancers.
Let me give you an example of where design over-rides function. At the lifts, there is no command, which can be seen as a neat design feature or a right pain if you are on level two, want to go to level three and the lift wants to go to the ground level. In fact, the lift is indicative of the downfall of T5. The attitude that the customer is not only rarely right but should be ignored in favour of what BA/BAA wants to do anyway. I lost count of the number of times after passing through security, staffed by very jolly Scots (everyone had a Scottish accent in that area) that Terminal 5 staff either looked through, stood stock still and waited for me to move aside or forced me to the back of the lift or barged past me to get out. Not since I was a child visiting a house-proud aunt (she would offer my sisters and I a glass of juice and march us to the kitchen to watch as we drank it in case we spilled any) have I been invited anywhere to admire sumptuous grandeur only to feel that I am a major pain in the backside by being there and am making the place look untidy.
T5 is going for the elite market, but BA should remember all sorts will pass through there. In Terminal 1, franchises like WH Smith have loose fruit for sale. Greengrocery is clearly deemed non-U at T5. No small sweet bars either. Too gauche? If you don’t want a Pret a Manger or Boots sandwich there is Gordon Ramsay’s Plane Food (steak and chips for £23) and the Caviar House alongside Prada, Harrods and Paul Smith shops and the Damien Hirst pieces of art. Nice, but has BA really gauged its market? Terminal 5 could turn off visitors if tourists using it pass on how expensive everything is when they get back home.
I generally opt to fly BA as the airline has the larger planes with more comfortable seats, better baggage allowances, don’t fleece passengers for wanting to sit together or eat during the flight. Generally, passengers are not herded along from check-in to airport bus; if anything goes wrong, BA has technical support that other airlines can’t provide. However, there are other airlines in other countries that have these, so BA has to make a great effort to distinguish yourself by welcoming people into your home. Maybe try some customer-facing training days alongside the baggage handling extra courses would do the trick.
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