A Fifth Terminal Is Planned for Heathrow

GENEVA — The International Air Transport Assn., representing 205 airlines worldwide, praised a decision to build a major new terminal at London’s Heathrow airport.

British airport operator BAA said it planned to spend up to $1.61 billion on a new fifth terminal at Heathrow.

It said the terminal’s first phase, capable of handling 10 million passengers a year, should open in 2002. When completed, Terminal 5 should be able to handle 30 million passengers a year.

“Terminal 5 is the key to the continued development of air services to the United Kingdom,” IATA Director General Guenter Eser said in a statement. “Without the terminal and the planned investments in air traffic control and other parts of the infrastructure, it is not just the airlines which would suffer.”

The Geneva-based body said travel and tourism was the world’s largest economic activity. Civil aviation represented at least $700 billion in gross output and contributed 21 million jobs to the world’s work force.