England - London - T5 Baggage reclaim at Heathrow Airport

Seen from an aerial walkway, we look down on a lady airline passenger being helped to pull her heavy suitacse from the carousel in the baggage reclaim hall in the arrivals of Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5. 50-70,000 pieces of British Airways baggage a day travel through 11 miles of conveyor belts which were installed in a 5-storey underground hall beneath the 400m (a quarter of a mile) length of Terminal 5. T5 alone has the capacity to serve around 30 million passengers a year and was completed in 2008 at a cost of £4.3bn. The system was designed by an integrated team from the airport operator BAA, BA and Vanderlande Industries of the Netherlands, and handles both intra-terminal and inter-terminal luggage. From writer Alain de Botton's book project "A Week at the Airport: A Heathrow Diary" (2009).

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Filename: heathrow_airport459-14-07-2009.jpg
Image Size: 5315x3543 / 3.9MB; Heathrow airport GB British English Europe EU Great Britain England UK London aviation BAA terminal 5 five T5 baggage arrivals airside hall interior carousels passengers collecting modern aerial overlooking above help kind heavy weight assistance assist generous lady female woman male man gesture gentleman alone yourself bags suitcases cases unclaimed mine property arriving belt reclaim tourism travelling travel air travel conveyor belt transportation transport hi-tech technology efficienct efficiency computerized automated processing schedule transit transfer logistics distribution destination en-route destinations deadline load continents intercontinental international worldwide air transport hub everyday luggage scheduled people LHR carousel efficient struggle
Contained in galleries: UK Border agency, A Week at the Airport (unpublished)

Seen from an aerial walkway, we look down on a lady airline passenger being helped to pull her heavy suitacse from the carousel in the baggage reclaim hall in the arrivals of Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5. 50-70,000 pieces of British Airways baggage a day travel through 11 miles of conveyor belts which were installed in a 5-storey underground hall beneath the 400m (a quarter of a mile) length of Terminal 5. T5 alone has the capacity to serve around 30 million passengers a year and was completed in 2008 at a cost of £4.3bn. The system was designed by an integrated team from the airport operator BAA, BA and Vanderlande Industries of the Netherlands, and handles both intra-terminal and inter-terminal luggage. From writer Alain de Botton's book project "A Week at the Airport: A Heathrow Diary" (2009).