Okay, so now that Terminal 5 is up an running (and falling apart already) let's now look forward to the next big thing at Heathrow: Heathrow East. Here's what BAA have to say on the matter.

It will open in 2012 and be home to Star Alliance, including bmi and Virgin. I assume it will anyway since it will replace T2, which will be empty after the musical chairs is complete, and T1, which will house Star Alliance after the musical chairs.

There is not unjust reason to hope that we can consider hoping that it is possible that it will be better than T5. This is because the mistakes of T5 will hopefully be a learning experience. Okay, maybe BAA never learn, but the airlines sure as hell will and they don't have the luxury of sheer scale to weather a storm of incompetence the way BA can. I hope Star Alliance watches BAA like a hawk on this one and don't take any of their crap. The fact that the multiple airlines will be using it is a positive thing. That's more voices to be heard. More viewpoints to be considered. The peer review of the process should be more extensive when there's more than two parties involved.

It'll make a big difference to the airport as a whole. Hopefully, it will clean-up that godawful slum that is the Central Terminal Area. It should also improve that road layout in the CTA, with one big terminal instead of two and a Queen's Building. Okay so I maybe hope in naiveity, but even T5 has a pretty good layout, except the signage is rubbish. It would be nice though if while they're at it, they'd widen the tunnel into the CTA. It would help relieve some congestion and make the journey more pleasant. The current tunnel is dingy and claustrophobic, the perfect welcome to the current Heathrow, but the new Heathrow needs something better.

Still, it's a bit of an enigma at the moment. We have some fancy artist renderings that make it look like Superman's ice crystal palace, both looking cool and creepy. Of course, if it is distinctive and still efficient, then that's great. The prospective maps are weird. They show little gate space at the building a funny remote piers, which I assume will be linked by underground transit systems like at T5. The stands are obviously off scale, unless BAA expect Star Alliance to operate exclusively A380s, even on the GLA route.

The design must be close to being finalised since construction must begin before long. What else apart from the high level vision do we know? Who is contracted to build it? What is the layout actually like? Is it really going to be a look weird like that on the inside? And will there be some underground transit system to the other terminals?