In a first for London Heathrow’s iconic terminal 5, the home of British Airways since it opened in 2008, another airline has moved in – with the help of the Menzies ground handling team.

When coronavirus hit the UK earlier this year, two of the terminals at Heathrow were closed and all flights moved to the remaining terminals at the airport. Our customer, American Airlines, moved from T3 to T2 during this process, and the ground handling team had to move too!

Only two months later, in June, the team were on the move again as AA secured space in the prestigious terminal 5 building. Capacity had opened up in the terminal, and as a One World Alliance member it was logical to bring AA into T5.

The move makes life easier for passengers connecting between BA and AA flights – they no longer need to rush through the connections centre and travel across Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport. Instead, they have time to relax at T5.

But behind the scenes, a huge amount of planning went into the move. American Airlines’ IT systems had to be introduced at T5 and our Menzies ground handling team had to move equipment from T2 to T5 (to give you an idea of the distance, this journey takes 20 minutes on the airport train).

Two moves later and the operation is going well - Menzies have been handling four flights a day at T5 for AA. They continue to support customers at T2 as well, so the team is having to be extra flexible now that they’re working across two sites.

Great work from the Menzies team at London Heathrow!