England - London - Hi-tech baggage system beneath Heathrow Airport's terminal 5

50-70,000 pieces of British Airways baggage a day travel through these 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. 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. There are four colour codes: Yellow for out-of-gauge (oversized, like golf clubs); dark blue for not x-rayed; light blue for transfer and red, meaning the item has been subjected to 12 seconds of x-ray scanning. From writer Alain de Botton's book project "A Week at the Airport: A Heathrow Diary" (2009).

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Filename: heathrow_airport1177-13-08-2009_1.jpg
Copyright: Richard Baker
Image Size: 4096x2730 / 1.0MB; Heathrow airport GB British English Europe EU Great Britain England UK London aviation BAA baggage terminal 5 five T5 tourism travelling travel air travel conveyor belt transportation transport hi-tech technology subterranean underground huge complex multi-storey efficient efficiency computerized automated Vanderlande processing process integrated schedule transit transfer logistics distribution destination en-route destinations deadline load continents intercontinental international worldwide air transport hub everyday heavy weight system luggage scheduled airline LHR
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50-70,000 pieces of British Airways baggage a day travel through these 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. 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. There are four colour codes: Yellow for out-of-gauge (oversized, like golf clubs); dark blue for not x-rayed; light blue for transfer and red, meaning the item has been subjected to 12 seconds of x-ray scanning. From writer Alain de Botton's book project "A Week at the Airport: A Heathrow Diary" (2009).