Heathrow Airport’s recently refurbished Terminal 2 has become the first airport terminal to offer a personal shopping service.
The Terminal closed in 2009 to allow for the £11bn refurbishment, which includes a wide range of high-end shops, restaurants and cafés. Most notably, the terminal will include a caviar bar and Heston Blumenthal’s The Perfectionists' Café, which features a wood-burning oven - another world first for an airport. Its aim, according to Heathrow press office, is to deliver “exceptional food, quickly."
Dedicated stylists will assist shoppers in selecting new fashions that they can try on in a private suite. Transfers to various terminals are also on offer should fliers wish to visit specific shops, if time allows.
Fliers can also make use of the Plaza Premium Lounge, which is equipped with a wellness spa and a champagne bar. The lounge will be open to all passengers, regardless of the class of their ticket, but requires a one-off fee of £40 to enter.
Shops in the terminal will have a British focus and include more than 140 brands including, Harrods, Paul Smith, Burberry and John Lewis, the department store’s first outlet in an airport. Complimentary beauty treatments will be available in the duty free area.
An enormous sculpture by the artist Richard Wilson sits boldly in the terminal. Entitled Slipstream, it is the longest piece of public sculpture in Europe at 78m long. Wilson described the aluminium structure as “a metaphor for travel. It’s about velocity, acceleration and deceleration, which follow it at every undulation of its form."
The terminal was reopened by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. It will serve 15.8 million passengers a year from 23 Star Alliance airlines such as Aer Lingus, Germanwings and Virgin’s Little Red.
(Written by Rachael Flethcher)