Sir Tim Clark told The Times his regular experience of Terminal 3 showed it put shareholders before passengers. The building badly needed reconfiguring to make the experience better, he told the newspaper.

“I was at Heathrow the other day and walking out of our lounge the ceiling height is awful,” Clark said. “It looks like a utilitarian structure, post-Second World War. It is just not good enough.”

Clark said the terminal needed to be redesigned, with the shopping and restaurant space reduced in size to allow more room for security and check-in.

Terminal 3 opened in 1961; it was last renovated in 2007 when a new frontage and drop-off area was added. It sits in contrast to Terminal 5, opened in 2008 and the remodelled Terminal 2, completed in 2014. Terminal 1, the original Heathrow building, now houses the baggage system for Terminal 2.

Clark said the contrast with Middle East airports was stark. Dubai overtook Heathrow as the world’s busiest international airport a decade ago and it is among several using the latest facial recognition technology to speed passenger throughflow. 

“Where we are based, new airports are being built employing the latest technologies to streamline the process of all the customer-facing elements,” he said.

Heathrow, which charges some of the world’s highest passenger fees, had hoped to hike them further but has been prevented from doing so.

Heathrow raised fees by 56% in 2022, claiming it needed to recoup billions lost during the pandemic. 
 
However, the CAA told Heathrow to reduce average charges from £31.57 per passenger to £25.43 in 2024. Heathrow had wanted an increase of £32-£43 per passenger in the 2022-2026 period.

The airport told the paper: “Every pound we want to spend on improving airport facilities needs approval from our regulator. Despite having our proposals cut back in the current regulatory settlement, we will still invest £3.6 billion upgrading our infrastructure over the next three years.”