How Heathrow Airport's Terminal 2 is different from Terminal 5

Heathrow Airport's bosses say they have researched every terminal opening in the past 10 years to avoid the problems at the launch of Terminal 5. Here is how Terminal 2, also known as Queen Elizabeth Terminal, different from any other terminal.

Terminal 2 will be much smaller than Terminal 5, the last new terminal built at Heathrow.

Terminal 5 handled 29.8 million passengers in 2013. Terminal 2 expects to handle 10.1 million passengers in 2014 which will go up to 17.1 by 2018-19. Its maximum capacity will be 20 million passengers per year.

For six months prior to the opening, Terminal 2 has undergone 180 trials having smaller check-in for 3,000 people and larger trials for 14,000 passengers at a time.

The airport operators have approached volunteer passengers for the trials as it seeks to avoid the embarrassment of check-in and lost baggage problems when Terminal 5 opened.

Terminal 2 will open in a phased manner starting with United Airlines shift to Terminal 2 followed by 26 other Star Alliance members, Aer Lingus, Germanwings and Virgin Atlantic Little Red.

Terminal 2 covers an area of 40,000 sq. meters, the smallest in Heathrow Airport. Terminal 5 in comparison is spread over an area of 353,000 sq. meters.

Terminal 2 will ultimately have 178 flights and 55,000 passengers per day. Terminal 5 has nearly 545 flights per day and 81,000 passengers per day.

Terminal 2 is being built at a cost of £2.5 billion while Terminal 5 was built at a cost of £4.

Overall since 2003, London Heathrow Airport has seen an investment of £11 billion for modernisation