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LONDON (AP) — The long awaited new Terminal 2 building has opened at London Heathrow Airport.
The first flight, a United Airlines Boeing 767 from Chicago, landed Wednesday.
The new building replaces the old Terminal 2, which has been demolished, and is part of a plan to revitalize Heathrow. The airport has long suffered from overcrowding.
The 2.5 billion pound ($4.2 billion) building is designed to handle 20 million passengers each year.
Airport planners are phasing in the new building, scheduling just 34 flights on its first day. They hope to avoid the large scale baggage handling problems and other delays that marred the opening of Terminal 5 in 2008.
The airy new terminal will eventually house 26 airlines and handle about 330 flights each day.
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