The contents of Heathrow's Terminal 1 makes for the least appealing auction in history
Who would want to keep mementos of delayed flights, huge queues and enforced sleepovers on the cold, hard airport floor?
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Your support makes all the difference.Thousands of holidaymakers have travelled through airports during the Easter break.
For most, it will have been a gruelling experience involving a snail-like shuffle through security, a lengthy walk to a distant departure gate, and – the icing on the cake – the final claustrophobic coach ride to a plane where you have to pay for a snack.
I can understand the passion of railway fans, who collect memorabilia, but an “airport enthusiast”? Heathrow Airport is convinced these people exist and will be eagerly bidding on 21 April when the contents of Terminal 1 are being auctioned.
If you fancy owning one of those huge litter bins that filled up with discarded bottles of water by the security checkpoints, or those rarely unoccupied seats in departures, or even the luggage belts which spewed out our suitcases after an interminable wait, now is your chance.
The terminal was once the busiest in Europe after it opened in 1968, but closed in 2015. This sale (which includes 4,000 seats, First Class signs and 110 check in desks) is described as “a landmark auction”.
If only these fixtures and fittings could tell a story: the enforced sleepovers on the floors when flights were cancelled, the misery of the huge queues at check-in when BA had one of their annual strikes during the summer, the departure boards which brought the news your flight had been delayed for yet another five hours owing to a go-slow by air traffic controllers in Europe.
This stuff reeks of human misery – it is jinxed.
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