In the busiest airport in Great Britain: Shivali is best behind the scenes at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 to find out what really happens to your bag

It is the best connected airport in the world and links to more than 230 destinations in nearly 90 countries.

So it should not be a surprise Heathrow Airport also has one of the world’s most advanced baggage systems.

In 2024 alone, Heathrow treated no less than 39.47 million outgoing bags.

To put that in perspective, that is on average 75 bags per minute, or 1.25 bags every second!

It is not surprising that the transport hub is usually extremely private about what is happening behind closed doors.

However, the science and technology editor of MailOnline, Shivali Best, was invited behind the scenes at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 for a rare look inside.

With 150 check-in positions, more than 18 miles of conveyor belts and an early bag storage warehouse managed by 30 faucets, the luggage system is carefully designed from start-to-finish.

So whether you are a great holiday maker or a busy businessman, this is what really happens to your bag when it passes through the busiest airport of Great Britain.

The Terminal 5 of Heathrow was opened in 2008 and is mainly used by British Airways.

It is safe to say that his baggage handling system went to a rocky start, with the then Minister of Aviation, Jim Fitzpatrick, claiming that the terminal was ‘well under expectation’.

In the opening days, problems with the IT systems of Terminal 5 British Airways forced to cancel and insult hundreds of flights, with a total of around 42,000 bags that their owners have not reached.

Fortunately, Heathrow has staged his system and processes in the 17 years, with Terminal 5 now has the largest automated baggage handling system in the world.

I met Bagage Engineering Duty Managers, Alec Burge and Nigel Jinman, during the departure gates for a tour of this Operation of World Class.

Terminal 5 Only has 150 check -in positions 30 meters above the ground, where passengers can drop off their luggage.

“When every passenger checks in, his bag gets a tag with a luggage source Message (BSM),” explains Mr. Burge.

‘Every passenger has a unique, with information about everything, of his name, flight number, class and chair.

“The BSM is used to get the bag through the baggage system to the right flight.”

Behind the scenes, the luggage system is split into two sections – North and South – where bags are transported on mirror trips to aircraft at the 53 departure gates.

Armed with our passports and security passes, we go our way through a modest door and we start with our exploration of this mysterious luggage labyrinth.

After climbing 10 meters down, we see pockets coming into the system for the first time.

“While the bag falls into the system, an automatic reader will look at the BSM,” Mr. Burge explains.

“There are dozens of scanners in the baggage system.”

The first stop is a volumetric scanner that detects whether a bag is flat or upright, and whether it is too large or heavy.

If the scanner detects a bag, it is upright – an excellent position to get into a jam – it will surrender it to a special rotating belt that shoots him on his side before it again joins the main transport band.

When the bags get into a jam at any time, see engineers on CCTV and can withdraw to erase the blockade.

Then it is to the X -ray scanners, where the bags go through five levels of screening.

If they fail at the first level, they are escalated to the next and the escalation continues as required, whereby the police are called if the bag cannot be deleted.

As soon as a bag is clearly received at the security, it continues to a ‘Sorter’ transport band – a huge track consisting of 1,300 moving drawers.

While the drawers make their way through the track, to my surprise, they suddenly tap and launch the bags in one of the 132 outputs.

Finally, the bags are loaded with each exit on a loading device of a unit that is driven by the airline to the aircraft to be loaded.

One of the greatest tensions for travelers is the risk that bags will be lost during tight transfers.

Fortunately, Terminal 5 also has a roller coaster connection system to ensure that bags with top speed are thrown through – and precision.

“If you have a tight connection, your bag is marked as a time -critical,” explains Mr. Burge.

“Going through connecting bags through 16 transfer belts to a vehicle -encrypted vehicle that runs to where it should be.”

Just when I think the Flute Stop Tour is coming to an end, the experts show me the early bag storage unit, where all early bags can be stored safely until they are needed.

Is reminiscent of the door warehouse in ‘Samples, Inc’, this unit is managed by 30 automated cranes, which can beat 6,500 bags with impressive precision.

As with most systems, the Terminal 5 baggage system is not flawless, with incidental blockages where engineers have to come and rearrange the bags.

“It is often due to the ways in which the bags were discharged,” Mr. Burge tells me.

“The handlers of the airline place the bags on the conveyor belt and they have to leave a space so that bags can run nicely and easily through the system.”

Other problems amount to the nature of the bags themselves.

“If each bag was a square box, it would process much better because of the system,” he joked.

As a passenger there are various simple things that you can do to reduce the risk of a problem with your bag, according to Mr. Jinman.

“Tas straps always get stuck and we can’t repatriate them so that they just go into the trash,” he said.

“They are an absolute nightmare. Klingfilm Wrap is also terrible – it is packed as the belts do. ‘

Hard bags are the best option, according to the expert.

‘We treat the drawers such as surf boards – we wax them so that they are slippery. So some really soft leather bags or sports equipment can get stuck on the trays, “he explained.

‘If the trays give a tip, those bags do not always fall along the right gutter.

“Fortunately, this will set up an alarm in the control room and an engineer goes down to restore the bags.”

In the meantime, Mr. Jinman’s top tip is to always include a note in your suitcase with your name, flight details and telephone number.

“If the tag comes from your bag, we can, as soon as we open it, call and see which flight you are on.”