Rival airline alliance to expand Heathrow terminal

As British Airways prepares to make the move to Heathrow’s new, glitzy Terminal 5 in the coming weeks, some rival airlines are feeling left out, having to cope with much older facilities at Europe’s gateway airport. SkyTeam members, however, are planning to do something about this situation. According to a media report released earlier today, the alliance that brings together some of the largest airlines, including Delta, Air France-KLM and Alitalia, are planning on investing in the expansion and amelioration of facilities at Heathrow Airport.

SkyTeam is planning on spending just over $194 million on enhancements to one of Heathrow’s four, older terminals. The new facility’s projected completion date is set for the second half of 2009. The renovated terminals are expected to make the check-in process much more efficient for SkyTeam passengers—primarily through the use of dedicated kiosks—and airlines may also find that their operating costs will go down, thanks to a more effective use and pooling of resources.

Giorgio Callegari chairs SkyTeam’s infrastructures and special projects committee, which is in charge of laying the groundwork for these renovations. Callegari observed that with these improvements at Heathrow, alliance members will enjoy some of the best facilities throughout Europe and these airlines will be prominent at the continent’s largest airports. SkyTeam members already enjoy dominant market positions at Paris Charles de Gaulle and the Amsterdam Schiphol International Airport. Additionally, Delta and Northwest are some of the strongest players at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport and bustling Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson.

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