London Heathrow Airport has opened its newly renovated private VIP terminal. Previously known as The Windsor Suite, it has undergone an eight-month £3 million ($3.7 million) refurbishment.
Now called The Windsor by Heathrow, the new terminal is for VIP guests who fly in first or business class. When it was known as The Windsor Suite, Emirates and Etihad Airways were among the airlines that had the most passengers who used the service, while Dubai, Riyadh and Doha were in the top five most common destinations guests travelled to.
The facility is only available to those in first and business class, with no restrictions as to which airline passengers are travelling with. The rebranded facility is located at Terminal 5, and since it has a separate entrance, passengers can skip the main part of the terminal entirely. It is available for departures, connections and arrivals.
Prices starts at £3,812 ($4,750) for up to three guests and comes with several VIP services.
The experience begins with a private luxury chauffeur-driven car that picks up guests from their home or hotel and takes them directly to the terminal. For an additional cost, the chauffeur can go to any address in the UK. Once at the terminal, guests have access to one of eight private suites.
Dining is another highlight, with a menu created by British chef Jason Atherton, who helms two-Michelin star Dubai restaurant Row on 45. The menu includes dishes such as English butter shortbread with praline cream, Earl Grey tea ice cream, custard sauce and charred mandarin. However, this menu is only available between 5.30am to 10pm; outside these hours, only drinks are served.
The service handles immigration and customs, allowing guests to bypass the process unless additional checks or information are required.
When it’s time to board, guests are transferred directly to the aircraft while baggage teams take care of their luggage. Additionally, those who book the service can invite up to two non-travelling friends to join them in the lounge up to 15 minutes before departure.
The facility also serves as a private art gallery, featuring museum-quality pieces from around the world that guests can purchase instantly via QR code. There's also a private shopping service, with the option to visit select stores in Terminal 5.
Did you know?
Brunch has been around, is some form or another, for more than a century. The word was first mentioned in print in an 1895 edition of Hunter’s Weekly, after making the rounds among university students in Britain. The article, entitled Brunch: A Plea, argued the case for a later, more sociable weekend meal. “By eliminating the need to get up early on Sunday, brunch would make life brighter for Saturday night carousers. It would promote human happiness in other ways as well,” the piece read. “It is talk-compelling. It puts you in a good temper, it makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings, it sweeps away the worries and cobwebs of the week.” More than 100 years later, author Guy Beringer’s words still ring true, especially in the UAE, where brunches are often used to mark special, sociable occasions.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Basquiat in Abu Dhabi
One of Basquiat’s paintings, the vibrant Cabra (1981–82), now hangs in Louvre Abu Dhabi temporarily, on loan from the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
The latter museum is not open physically, but has assembled a collection and puts together a series of events called Talking Art, such as this discussion, moderated by writer Chaedria LaBouvier.
It's something of a Basquiat season in Abu Dhabi at the moment. Last week, The Radiant Child, a documentary on Basquiat was shown at Manarat Al Saadiyat, and tonight (April 18) the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is throwing the re-creation of a party tonight, of the legendary Canal Zone party thrown in 1979, which epitomised the collaborative scene of the time. It was at Canal Zone that Basquiat met prominent members of the art world and moved from unknown graffiti artist into someone in the spotlight.
“We’ve invited local resident arists, we’ll have spray cans at the ready,” says curator Maisa Al Qassemi of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
Guggenheim Abu Dhabi's Canal Zone Remix is at Manarat Al Saadiyat, Thursday April 18, from 8pm. Free entry to all. Basquiat's Cabra is on view at Louvre Abu Dhabi until October
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
