Exclusive pictures: The first images of Heathrow Terminal Five

Designed by acclaimed architect Richard Rogers, Terminal 5 is the UK's largest free-standing building, with enough floorspace to fit in 50 football pitches.

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Vast: The new Heathrow T5

The £4.3billion facility is due to open on March 27 next year and will be capable of handling 30 million passengers a year.

It means that Heathrow, already the world's busiest airport in terms of international passengers, will see its total number of customers rise to a staggering 90million.

To ensure that the ambitious project opens without a hitch, extensive trials are already under way. As our main picture shows, hundreds of suitcases are dotted around the hall ready for staff to test the baggage-handling systems.

There are actually three buildings on the former sewage-works site – the main Terminal 5, known as T5A, and its satellite building T5B, will open first. The third building, T5C, is due to come into operation in 2010.

The height of the main building and its single-span roof will offer passengers dramatic views of planes landing and taking off from the comfort of 9,000 leather seats.

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Going up: The vast terminal has 65 escalators

T5 will include the first Prada store in a British airport and the first Tiffany boutique. There will even be a Gordon Ramsay restaurant – but no McDonald's.

In The Galleries, a lounge for first- and club-class passengers, there are chandeliers, seven miles of fabric on the floors and walls, 134 state-of-the-art showers and infinity baths.

But perhaps the most extraordinary aspect of this project is that it has been completed on time and on budget.

Terminal 5 in numbers

• 30 million passengers are expected to go through T5 each year. It will mean that Heathrow, already one of the world's busiest airports, will handle around 90 million passengers a year in total.

• 5.1 million cubic yards(3.9 million cubic metres) is the capacity of T5A, which means that the terminal is big enough to swallow the new Wembley Stadium.

• 1.5million cubic yards (1.2 million cubic metres) of concrete were used to build T5.

• 80,000 tons of steel were used on T5, with the 24,000 tons of steel used in T5A alone beating the 23,000 used to build the new Wembley, including its famous arch.

• 36,000 square yards (30,000 square metres) of glass were fitted to the facade of T5. The glass came as more than 5,500 bespoke panels.

• 9,000 leather seats have been installed for the public in T5.

• 4,000 spaces will be available at the terminal's multi-storey car park.

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Flying along: The huge T5, pictured under construction last year

• 2,833 bull elephants would be needed to match the weight of each section of the roof. A total of 22 giant steel beams are used to hold it all up.

• 2012 is the year when the new Heathrow East terminal will rise from the ashes of Terminal 2 and the Queen's Building, which are earmarked for demolition late next year.

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Outside view: Glass walls and streamlined structures

900 tons is the weight of the control room that tops the control tower. It had to be built off-site to avoid disrupting flights at Heathrow. Cranes would have interfered with the airport's radar system, so the T5 construction team used giant hydraulic platforms to raise the control room while six 39ft (12-metre) tower sections were slotted in underneath it.

• 650 acres (260 hectares) is the size of the site on which T5 was built – that's the equivalent of London's Hyde Park.

• 435 yards (396 metres) is the length of T5A. It is 193 yards (176 metres) wide and 44 yards (40 metres) from the ground floor to the single-span roof. It is Britain's biggest free-standing building.

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Last checks: The team try out suitcases on baggage reclaim

Going down: A worker views his handiwork

• 287 feet (87 metres) is the height of the new control tower. It is twice the height of the current tower and is the tallest of its kind in the UK.

• 134 state-of-the-art showers have been installed in the first- and club-class lounges.

• 96 "fast-bag-drop desks" have been created for passengers who have already checked in. The desks are part of a unique "flow-through system" designed to speed up passenger processing.

• 80 per cent of passengers, according to British Airways,will check in online rather than use check-in desks.

• 65 escalators have been put in the terminal, including the UK's second longest, beaten only by one at Angel Tube station in North London.

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Sky-lights: T5 has a glass roof

Last details: T5 will open next year

Desk closed: But not for long

• 40 London plane trees – each weighing 11 tons – are being planted at Interchange Plaza to improve the environment.

• 11 miles (18 kilometres) is the length of the computerised and automated baggage system that will carry 5,000 bags an hour.

• 6 platforms are being built below T5 to accommodate extensions to the Heathrow Express, the Piccadilly Line and future national rail links.

• 2 people are entitled to visit the new 'VVIP lounge' – the Queen and the Prime Minister.

• 1 Gordon Ramsay restaurant will open in T5, but there won't be a McDonald's.

Figures compiled by Adam Luck