Commercial air travel at its outset was not meant to be about queuing for hours on end while being frisked by a grumpy looking customs officer before boarding. This, the reality of modern day air travel, didn’t exist in 1930s commercial aviation, where exclusivity and glamour were the order of the day. As terminal 5 at Heathrow opens we ask if the frustration of modern mass air travel has had an effect on airport design itself, and whether the days of glamorous art-deco airport design have gone forever ...
Designed by Eero Saarinen