Queen opens Heathrow's 5th terminal

LONDON, March 14 (UPI) -- Britain's Queen Elizabeth officially opened Heathrow Airport's gleaming new Terminal 5 in London Friday, 15 years after the first plan was submitted.

The queen termed the "highly impressive" structure a "21st century gateway to Britain." She had opened the first Heathrow terminal in 1955.

British Airways passengers begin using the 4.3 billion pound (about $8.6 billion) terminal on March 27, the Times of London said.

BA, whose shareholders funded the full cost of the building, plans to move 92 percent of its 550 daily flights to Terminal 5, a glass-encased structure built on a former sewage works. The terminal building eventually will handle 30 million passengers a year.