OREANDA-NEWS. Lufthansa will be relocating its flight operations to the new Terminal 2: The Queen's Terminal at London Heathrow Airport from this coming Wednesday (1st October).

The move is the latest phase of the process to bring all Star Alliance members under one roof for the first time in Heathrow and sees Lufthansa joining United Airlines, Air Canada, Air China and ANA - the first airlines to move into the new terminal when it opened in June.

At the same time, Lufthansa is also opening its largest lounge outside Germany offering comfortable seating for 350 guests in 1,600 square metres featuring both a Senator and a Business Lounge. Until now Lufthansa passengers at Heathrow had access to contract or partner lounges to which Frequent Travellers had no right of entry. The new lounge will change this so that Frequent Travellers can look forward to using the new Lufthansa Business Lounge from Wednesday onwards. As with all Lufthansa Senator and Business Lounges, the new London lounge will also welcome Star Alliance Gold Customers as well as those travelling in First or Business Class on any Star Alliance member carrier from Heathrow.

Welcoming the move Christian Schindler, Lufthansa General Manager UK & Ireland said: “The Queen´s Terminal sets completely new standards in customer service and seamless travel for passengers at London Heathrow thanks to its modern airport infrastructure. The terminal's design, with its open, airy atmosphere, will vastly improve the customer experience at Heathrow, particularly when connecting between Star Alliance member airline flights.

“The 24 Star Alliance member airlines serving Heathrow represent over 20% of the airport's traffic and 23 of them will be in our new home in Heathrow at Terminal 2 by the end of this year. The goal is to have all Star Alliance members operating at the airport in this single Heathrow terminal, creating a superior travel experience for passengers, new business opportunities for the member airlines and providing an improved working environment for our airline and airport employees.”

All Lufthansa Group airlines will be transferring operations into Terminal 2 in the next two weeks. Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines move in on 1st October, Germanwings on 8th October with SWISS and Brussels Airlines on 15th October. The relocation of all Star Alliance partners will be completed by the end of October and this will reduce the minimum connecting time within the new terminal from 75 to 60 minutes.

Lufthansa, together with the other Group airlines, will be located in Zone B, sharing ticket desks with Austrian Airlines and Germanwings. Premium passengers will have their own check-in and ticket desks within this area. The check-in area has been specially designed for speed and efficiency featuring common use self-service kiosks that can be used by any passenger to check in (if not already checked in on-line) and/or print a bag tag before they proceed to one of the 12 available fast bag drop desks to hand their luggage to an agent. In addition, 14 full-service traditional check-in desks will be provided, around half of which will be for the exclusive use of First Class, Business class and Star Alliance Gold passengers. This passenger group also has a fast-track option to speed them through the security checks.

The new terminal also boasts a new multi-storey car park that is linked to the terminal. After passengers have passed through security and passport control they can make the most of over 60 shops and restaurants. These include brands such as Burberry, Hugo Boss, John Lewis and Harrods as well as The Perfectionists' Café from multi-award winning chef, Heston Blumenthal, the traditional gastro pub 'London's Pride by Fuller's' and the authentic Italian coffee house 'Ca'puccino'.

The Star Alliance airlines that serve Heathrow - Aegean Airlines, Air Canada, Air China, Air India, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian, Avianca, Brussels Airlines, Croatia Airlines, EGYPTAIR, Ethiopian Airlines, EVA Air, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, SWISS, TAP Portugal, Turkish Airlines, THAI, and United - together provide over 120 flights a day to 46 worldwide destinations in 26 countries. These provide access to Star Alliance's global network of 1,316 destinations.