Heathrow Terminal 2 map: the A and B concourses, the tunnel, and the levels

Terminal 2 is two airside buildings, not one. The main building T2A holds check-in, security, the central departure lounge, and gates A1 to A26 on a single broad concourse. The satellite T2B holds gates B31 to B49 and sits about 800 metres east, reached only by an underground tunnel that peels off the main concourse near Gate A16. Once you commit to the tunnel, you are pointed at a B-gate; there is no shortcut back, and there is no shortcut between the two buildings at any other level.

The numbered gate ranges include some slots that are not currently in use. T2A runs the full A1 to A26 sequence. T2B operates 16 of its 20 numbered gates: B31 to B36, B38, B39, B41 to B44, and B46 to B49; B30, B37, B40, and B45 are not active. The total of around 42 active gate positions is what the page tile counts.

Above-ground, the building has its own profile on the central terminal area, with the airside satellite to the east and the underground rail station directly beneath at level -1. The whole structure was designed by Luis Vidal + Architects and opened on 4 June 2014, replacing an older terminal of the same name and the demolished Queen's Building next door. For the operational view (airlines, transport, parking, security, lounge access), see the Terminal 2 page; the page you are on covers the physical layout only.

Lifts at T2 are signed by level, not by floor name, and the level numbers appear on every directional sign. The five passenger levels:

• Level 5: check-in, the departures entrance, and the ticketing desks. Zones A to E across the floor for different airline groups, with overhead screens directing you to the right zone.
• Level 4: security, the airside departure lounge, all the A-gates, most of the lounges, and most of the restaurants and shops. The peel-off to the T2B tunnel sits on this level near Gate A16.
• Level 1: arrivals, the immigration hall (eGates and staffed desks), the baggage reclaim hall, and the meeting point opposite the international arrivals exit.
• Level 0: the buses, coaches, and the taxi rank. The Heathrow Central Bus Station between T2 and T3 sits a short covered walk from here.
• Level -1: the underground rail station, branded Heathrow Terminals 2 & 3, served by Heathrow Express, the Elizabeth Line, and the Piccadilly Line. Also the start of the covered underground walkway to Terminal 3.

Levels 2 and 3 exist inside the building but are operational space, not used by passengers. A reader arriving by rail at level -1 takes the lift or escalator up to level 5 for check-in; a reader landing at the gate on level 4 takes the lift down to level 1 for baggage.

The A-gates are arranged in a long single concourse on level 4, running roughly east-west, with the main central seating area near the security exit and the gates stretching out from there. From the security exit, the closest A-gates (A1 to A4) are a 2 to 3-minute walk. Gates A5 to A12 sit in the middle of the concourse, around 4 to 6 minutes. The far end, A20 to A26, is the longest walk in T2A, around 8 to 10 minutes at a normal pace; allow more if the gate is at the very end and a flight is just arriving at a neighbouring stand.

The peel-off for the underground tunnel to the T2B satellite is on the south side of the concourse, near Gate A16, signed clearly for B-gates. If your boarding pass shows a B-gate, do not walk to the end of the A-concourse first; the tunnel entrance is roughly two-thirds of the way along.

The B-gates sit in the T2B satellite, a separate airside building about 800 metres east of T2A. There is no transit train. The connection is an underground tunnel reached by escalator or lift down from the main concourse at the A16 peel-off; the tunnel itself sits at level -2 and includes travellators along most of its length. The walk from the entrance of the tunnel to the furthest B-gate takes 10 to 15 minutes; from the security exit to the furthest B-gate it can be 15 to 20 minutes including the level changes.

Allow extra time. Boarding closes at the gate, not at the tunnel entrance, so a passenger who arrives at the tunnel three minutes before boarding closes has missed the flight. The most useful rule of thumb: if your boarding pass starts with B, leave the main lounge or the lounge in T2A at least 30 minutes before boarding closes, longer if you are travelling with reduced mobility or with children.

The tunnel is one-way at busy times by signage; once you have committed to walking towards the satellite, the route is laid out as a continuous corridor with no branches, ending at a lift and escalator up to the T2B departure lounge at level 4. Returning to T2A is the same route in reverse and is fine; T2B has its own customs and immigration setup for arriving aircraft, so most B-gate arrivals walk back through the tunnel to the central baggage hall on level 1.

Nine lounges across the two buildings, five in T2A and four in T2B. Where each one sits matters more on a layout page than what each one serves; lounge access rules and reviews are on the Terminal 2 page itself, not here.

In T2A (the main building, level 4 airside), the cluster sits between the security exit and the start of the A-gates: the Lufthansa Business Lounge, the Lufthansa Senator Lounge, the Aer Lingus Lounge, the Plaza Premium Lounge, and the No1 Lounge. Of those, Lufthansa Senator is the largest, the Plaza Premium and No1 are the two paid-entry options open to anyone holding a Priority Pass or buying a walk-up pass, and Aer Lingus runs on its own membership tiers. The Lufthansa lounges sit relatively close to the A-gates; the others sit a little further back towards security.

In T2B (the satellite, level 4 airside), the four lounges cluster near the end of the tunnel exit, before the B-gates spread out: the Singapore Airlines SilverKris, the United Club, the United Global Services Lounge (rebranded from the old First Class facility), and the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge. None of the T2B lounges is paid-entry; access is on alliance status or business-class entitlement on the operating carrier. If your gate is in T2B and your status entitles you to a lounge, use one inside the satellite rather than walking back to T2A.

The main retail and food clusters are in T2A. The departure lounge has 40-plus shops including Harrods, Burberry, Mulberry, Hugo Boss, Gucci, Paul Smith, and Hackett, plus four World Duty Free outlets covering beauty, fragrance, alcohol, tobacco, and confectionery. Sit-down restaurants include Heston Blumenthal's The Perfectionists' Café, The Gorgeous Kitchen, Wagamama, and Itsu; chain cafes and bars (Pret, Caffè Nero, Costa, Café Rouge, The Curator, Heineken Yard) fill the gaps. The Boots and WHSmith stores sit near security exit on level 4.

The T2B satellite has noticeably less. Expect a couple of cafes, a snack and water grab-and-go, washrooms, seating, and the four airline lounges named above. There is no World Duty Free in T2B and no sit-down restaurant of the same scale as T2A. Eat and shop in the main concourse before the tunnel walk if you have the time; the gates and seating in T2B are fine, but the choice is not.

Quieter seating sits at the far ends of the A-concourse (around A1 and around A22 to A26) and along the walls of the T2B departure lounge between the lounge entrances and the gates. The central section of T2A around the main shopping plaza is the busiest part of the building at peak.

Arriving aircraft park at A-gates in T2A or B-gates in T2B. From either gate, the route to baggage runs down to level 1: the immigration hall on level 1 with the eGate bank and the staffed desks, then the baggage reclaim hall on the same level, then customs, then out into the arrivals concourse and the meeting point. Travel time from gate to the exit is usually 25 to 45 minutes including any wait at immigration; the eGate queue clears in under 10 minutes off-peak but can be 20 to 30 minutes when several long-haul wide-bodies arrive within the same hour.

The baggage reclaim hall has up to 10 belts and the belt for your flight is shown on the overhead screens in the immigration hall and the baggage hall. Bags appear on the belt 15 to 20 minutes after the aircraft is on stand, with the last bags 40 minutes or longer after a full long-haul wide-body or any aircraft that parks at a remote stand. The airline's ground handling agent runs the operation; the agent's desk inside the baggage hall handles missing, damaged, or delayed bag reports.

The meeting point sits on level 1 directly opposite the international arrivals exit, signed from the baggage hall. From the meeting point, lifts run down to level 0 for the buses and taxi rank, or to level -1 for the rail station and the walkway to Terminal 3.

Terminal 2 to Terminal 3 is the only walking pair at Heathrow, and the walkway is part of the T2 layout. The route is on level -1, the same level as the underground station. From the T2 arrivals hall on level 1, take the lift or escalator down to level -1 and follow the signs for Terminal 3 along the underground passage. The walk takes around 10 minutes at a normal pace, with travellators along most of the route. The route is step-free.

The walkway is landside, not airside. Arriving passengers who have already cleared immigration use it as a normal pedestrian connection; departing passengers can use it to switch terminals before security, useful when a connection lands at T3 but checks in at T2. Airside passengers connecting between flights at the two terminals follow the purple Flight Connections signs from the gate, which routes them along a separate corridor on a different level and avoids re-clearing security. For the door-to-door bands on every other terminal pair (T2 to T4, T2 to T5), see the inter-terminal transfer page; the airport-wide schematic is on the airport-wide Heathrow map. The neighbouring central-area map is at Terminal 3 map.