British Airways’ (BA) imminent move (27 March) to Terminal 5 is engendering a domino effect as airlines and alliances shift across Heathrow.

Oneworld has already said it will reduce its occupation of Heathrow terminals from four to two, while rival Star Alliance is to start its long-planned ‘Move under one Roof’ scheme.

Conceding that Heathrow was ‘the most challenging’ of all Star Alliance consolidation projects, the body is nonetheless confidently predicting it will have all 20 member carriers in one terminal by 2012.

However, given the complexity and crowded nature of Heathrow, coupled with the enormous scale of the rebuilding project, the under one roof development will take place in several phases.

“Of all our projects, Heathrow is admittedly the most challenging,” said Star Alliance CEO Jaan Albrecht. “In and ideal world we would already like to offer our customers a new state-of-the-art facility today.

“But needing to make use of the existing infrastructure, we will only be able to achieve this through a phased approach together with BAA and our member carriers. The end result will however, be a completely new customer experience at Heathrow.”

First Alliance carriers to shift into Terminal 1 following completion of current check-in demolition work will be Air New Zealand and United Airlines, which will move from crowded Terminal 3 on 10 June this year.

Star Alliance says that it will also open the largest lounge in its whole network on 1 June for all first and business class passengers, as well as for all Gold Card holders travelling on any member carriers from Terminal 1.

Bmi, South African Airways and United will also offer an arrivals lounge in Terminal 1 located outside the Customs Hall.

Albrecht is predicting that annual passenger numbers in Terminal 1 will fall from the current 23m to 15m by 2009, with a resulting improved passenger experience.

The second phase of the move is slated for the latter part of this year and will coincide with the closure of Terminal 2 as it makes way for the new Heathrow East.

All Star Alliance members operating in the terminal – Austrian, Lufthansa, Swiss, TAP Portugal and regional member, Croatia Airlines, will move to Terminal 1 during October and November. At the same time, bmi will start to use a new check-in area featuring what the Alliance calls a ‘linear layout’ as opposed to the islands being used at the moment.

All other member carriers – Air Canada, Air China, ANA, Blue1, Scandinavian Airlines, Thai and Turkish Airlines – will continue to use Terminal 3 until 2012. The Alliance says that up until then, passengers will benefit from a Terminal 3 upgrade to include check-in, gate area and lounge refurbishments, as well as enhanced baggage delivery systems.

Turkish Airlines will join Star Alliance on 1 April.