Heathrow Terminal 1 closed in 2015

Heathrow Terminal 1 closed to passengers in June 2015, forty-seven years after the Queen opened it in May 1968. British European Airways flew the first service from it; the last departure was a British Airways flight to Hanover. At its height it was handling upwards of nine million travellers annually, and for a period no short-haul terminal in western Europe was larger. By the end, flights had already been moved across to Terminal 2 and it was down to around seventeen departures and 1,700 passengers a day.

It was closed deliberately, to free the land for Terminal 2 to expand into. Heathrow now operates four terminals — 2, 3, 4 and 5 — and there is no plan to bring the number back to five.

A decade on this still causes confusion, because old confirmations, forwarded itineraries and out-of-date printouts continue to name Terminal 1. If yours does, check the terminal with your airline before the day you travel. For a pick-up it matters more than the flight number: Heathrow's terminals are several minutes apart by road, and arriving at the wrong one costs time you may not have. Tell us the terminal when you book, and if the airline moves you afterwards, let us know and we will move the driver.

Written by Airports Transfer in September 2026, drawing on contemporary reporting by BBC News. The original article is no longer available online.