England - London - Auromated baggage storage at Heathrow Airport's T5

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 at Heathrow Airport. Here we see items of luggage spending 4 hours in transit, held in a fully-automated parking lot for bags. Computers decide when to fish the item out and re-introduce it into the system and load it on to the appropriate aircraft. 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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Copyright: Richard Baker
Image Size: 4096x2730 / 933.2KB; Heathrow airport GB British English Europe EU Great Britain England UK London aviation BAA baggage terminal 5 five T5 suitcases cases bags property tourism travelling travel air travel held transportation transport hi-tech technology subterranean underground huge complex multistorey efficienct efficiency computerized automated Vanderlande processing process integrated check storage temporary holding transit layover individual separate identified ID schedule transfer logistics distribution destination en-route destinations deadline load continents intercontinental international worldwide air transport hub everyday heavy weight system luggage scheduled airline LHR multi-storey efficient
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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 at Heathrow Airport. Here we see items of luggage spending 4 hours in transit, held in a fully-automated parking lot for bags. Computers decide when to fish the item out and re-introduce it into the system and load it on to the appropriate aircraft. 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).