Heathrow Terminal 2 taxi | U Want Taxi

Known officially as the Queen's Terminal since it reopened in 2014, Terminal 2 mainly handles Star Alliance airlines — Lufthansa, United, Air Canada, Singapore Airlines and ANA among them — plus a handful of others sharing the same building. It sits on the central terminal island alongside Terminal 3, reached from the M4 via the tunnel road rather than a separate spur road the way Terminal 5 is.

Arrivals come out on the ground floor into a hall that opens directly onto the short-stay forecourt, which is fine for a quick drop but charges after the first few minutes if you're waiting rather than dropping straight off. We use the free long-stay area a few minutes further out for anyone collecting a passenger, and bring the car round once you've actually cleared customs, rather than sitting on the forecourt meter on the off chance you appear early.

Because Terminal 2 shares the central island with Terminal 3, the road layout around both can be confusing on a first visit — the same roundabout and tunnel system serves both buildings, and taking the wrong slip road can add several minutes even though the terminals themselves are only a short walk apart. Drivers who do this run regularly know which lane to be in before the tunnel splits, which matters more here than at any other Heathrow terminal.

Departures work the same way in reverse: drop-off right outside is timed for a quick unload, not a wait, and if you need extra time to sort luggage or say goodbye we'll use the long-stay drop point instead so there's no forecourt charge added to the fare. Security queues at Terminal 2 tend to build fastest around the first wave of morning departures, so we allow extra time for early flights.

Fares into Terminal 2 are the same as for Heathrow generally — £18 saloon or £28 executive from Slough or Burnham, £16/£25 from Windsor, £22/£32 from Maidenhead and £30/£42 from Marlow — since the terminal makes almost no difference to the length of the journey from any of those towns. What changes is only the last minute or two around the central island roundabout.

Terminal 2 was built on the site of the old Terminal 1, which was demolished to make way for it, and its check-in hall is one long open span rather than split into separate zones — easier for a driver to point you towards over the phone than a terminal with several distinct check-in areas. There's a hotel connected directly to the terminal by a covered walkway, which some passengers use as a meeting point instead of the forecourt itself when a flight's running early.

Baggage reclaim sits close to the arrivals exit, so once a flight's bags start moving the walk to the doors is short compared with some of Heathrow's older buildings, which is one reason we don't build in as much buffer time for a Terminal 2 pickup as we would for Terminal 3.