Heathrow Terminal 1
Heathrow Terminal 1 is a disused airport terminal at London Heathrow Airport that was in operation between 1968 and 2015. When it was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in April 1969, it was the largest new airport terminal in western Europe. At the time of its closure on 29 June 2015, to make way for the expansion of Heathrow Terminal 2, it had been handling only twenty daily flights by British Airways to nine destinations. From May 2017 the contents of the terminal were put up for auction. In 2025, plans were announced to demolish the building and expand Terminal 2, 10 years after its closure.
History
Foundation and use
Terminal 1 was designed by Frederick Gibberd, who also designed the earlier Europa Building and the adjacent Queens Building. It opened to passengers in 1968, and it was formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II in April 1969. At the time, Terminal 1 was the biggest short-haul terminal of its kind in Western Europe. Prior to the opening of Terminal 5 in 2008, Terminal 1 hosted the bulk of UK domestic services in and out of Heathrow – predominantly British Airways and British Midland International.A new pier was added in the 1990s which increased the capacity of the terminal, catering for wide-body aircraft. There was separation between arriving and departing passengers within the International section, although the terminal was not originally built to cater for this separation. In 2005, a substantial redesign and redevelopment of Terminal 1 was completed, which saw the opening of the new Eastern Extension, doubling the departure lounge in size and creating additional seating and retail space.
After the buyout of BMI, British Airways served some short- and medium-haul destinations from this terminal. Virgin Atlantic operated its short-lived Little Red UK domestic operation from the former BMI departure area in Gate 8 of Terminal 1.
Closure
Terminal 1 closed on 29 June 2015 to allow the second stage of the expansion of Terminal 2 and all flights it was serving were relocated to other terminals. Several airlines had already left Terminal 1 from 2014. The last tenants alongside British Airways were Icelandair, El Al and TAM Airlines; TAM Airlines moved to Terminal 3 on 27 May 2015.During Terminal 1's final days, British Airways was the last airline to operate there, with flights to Amman-Queen Alia, Baku, Beirut, Cairo and Hannover, which all moved to Terminal 5, and to Bilbao, Luxembourg, Lyon and Marseille, which were relocated to Terminal 3. The final flight to depart from Terminal 1 was British Airways BA0970 to Hannover, Germany, at 21:30 on 29 June 2015.
In 2018 an auction of the contents of Terminal 1 took place at the Thistle London Heathrow Hotel.
The main terminal building is now empty and some of the ancillary structures and contact piers have been demolished. Today the terminal is used for training and emergency services exercises. It also handles the baggage system for Terminal 2. In 2025 Heathrow Airport announced plans to demolish the main terminal building and expand Terminal 2.