Britain’s Heathrow Terminal 1, opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1969, has said goodbye to its final passengers.
One by one, airlines have stopped flying from T1 and transferred to other terminals.
Recently it has played host to just a handful of flights by British Airways, with the last of them, a flight to Hanover, departing on Monday evening.
Closure, followed by demolition, brings to an end more than 40 years of operations.
T1 at one time was renowned for being the biggest short-haul terminal of its kind in Western Europe.
Once a major part of Heathrow, T1 has been overshadowed by the opening of newer, improved facilities at the west London airport in recent years.
In 2008, T5 opened and quickly did well, despite a chaotic opening day when there were huge delays and travel chaos.
In 2009, the old T2 that had been the first terminal to operate at Heathrow and was opened by the queen in 1955, closed and was replaced by a £2.5 billion new T2, which opened in June 2014.
The T2 opening is part of an £11 billion redevelopment of the airport, which will see T2 double in size by 2019, at which point T3 will close and, like T1, be demolished. At this point, what was once a five-terminal airport will become a three-terminal hub, comprising T2, T4 and T5.
The last flight to depart Terminal 1 was scheduled to be BA970 to Hanover at 9.15pm GMT and the last arrival BA144 from Baku at 10.40pm GMT on Monday.
Captain Paul Imhoff, in charge of the flight to Hanover, said: “I was inspired to become a pilot by family trips down to Heathrow Terminal 1, so it is a really nice honour and symmetry that I can lead the team on the last ever flight to depart from the terminal.”
The last flight was given a send-off by many staff who have worked in the terminal during the past six decades.
Now all BA flights operate from either its flagship home of Terminal 5 or nearby Terminal 3.
Ian Howick, director of Heathrow for BA, said: “It is great news that we can once again look forward to having flights from just two Heathrow terminals and offer our connecting customers a quicker and simpler journey.
“We are continuing to modernise Terminal 3 with a new departures area under construction, which will include a new premium zone. We are also using Heathrow’s new integrated baggage system, which connects Terminal 3 and Terminal 5 together for the first time.”