Protests mark the opening of Terminal 5
Protesters staged a demonstration outside Heathrow’s Terminal 5 on the first day it opened to passengers.
Around 250 protesters turned out to object to growth in the aviation industry, by stripping off outer clothers to reveal red t-shirts underneath emblazoned with the “Stop Airport Expansion” slogan.
The demonstrators held the protest in the arrivals hall of the news terminal while some armed police officers watched on.
John Stewart, chairman of Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noice the Heathrow anti-expansion resident group, said: “This is not a demonstration against T5 so much as against what T5 means and that is extra flights, as many as 80,000 a year at Heathrow.”
The opening of the new terminal did not go smoothly, with many passengers experiencing baggage delays and 33 short-haul flights being cancelled.
British Airways, which has sole use of the new facility, said other problems included issues with customer parking and staff security screening.
Plane Stupid, the anti-airport expansion group, recently said that they felt Terminal 5 should be the last expansion at the airport.
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