London Heathrow Terminal 5 is an airport terminal at London Heathrow Airport, serving the UK capital city of London. Opened in 2008, the main building in the complex is the largest free-standing structure in the United Kingdom. Terminal 5 is currently used exclusively as one of the three global hubs of International Airlines Group, served by British Airways and Iberia, with the others being London Gatwick North and Madrid Barajas Terminal 4. Prior to March 2012, the terminal was used exclusively by British Airways. The terminal is designed to ultimately handle 35 million passengers a year.
The building’s lead architects were from the Richard Rogers Partnership and production design was completed by aviation architects Pascall + Watson. The engineers for the structure were Arup and Mott MacDonald. The building cost £4 billion and took 19 years from conception to completion, including the longest public inquiry in British history.