Qantas First Lounge London Heathrow: Still In The Works?

In early 2023, Qantas announced plans to expand its network of first class lounges, by opening a new location in London. This is something that many of us have been excited about, especially since the opening was initially planned for late 2025, so it should be imminent. Well, there’s now an update. First let’s recap the initial announcement, and then we’ll go over the latest (which is bad news).

Qantas First Lounge planned for London Heathrow

In early 2023, plans were announced for a new Qantas First Lounge to open in late 2025 at London Heathrow Airport (LHR). This was part of a larger announcement by Qantas about investing in its lounge network, though this was no doubt the most exciting development.

Qantas already has an excellent lounge in London, though it’s shared among all premium passengers, including those in first and business class, as well as oneworld Emerald and Sapphire members. The new Qantas First Lounge is supposed to give oneworld first class passengers and oneworld Emerald members a more exclusive lounge option.

The new Qantas First Lounge is supposed to be a completely separate space from the current lounge, so this will also significantly expand Qantas’ current lounge capacity at the airport. When this change happens, the current lounge will become the Qantas International Business Lounge.

If/when this lounge opens, London will be the fifth location with a Qantas First Lounge, after Sydney, Melbourne, Los Angeles, and Singapore. Qantas does a stellar job with its lounges, and they’re among my favorite oneworld Emerald lounges anywhere.

The investment in London makes sense, given that Qantas is launching “Project Sunrise” flights from Sydney and Melbourne to London. Qantas will have an all-new first class suite on the A350-1000.

Qantas currently flies from Perth to London with a Boeing 787, as well as from Singapore to London with an Airbus A380. It’s expected that those routes will continue to operate even when the new record-breaking flights launch.

Terminal 3 at Heathrow is an absolute delight for premium oneworld passengers. While the Qantas Lounge is great, I also love the Cathay Pacific Business Lounge and Cathay Pacific First Lounge, which are among my favorite outstation lounges anywhere.

Qantas First Lounge delayed, but still in the works

I’ve been very curious about the progress of the new Qantas First Lounge London Heathrow, given that it was supposed to open later this year. During my recent visit to the Qantas Lounge Heathrow, I asked the staff about any updates, and they said the new facility is delayed, but didn’t have any additional details.

I wanted to get an official statement on that, so I’ve followed up with Qantas corporate communications a few times over the past few weeks, and they haven’t given me a statement or responded to my question. However, Executive Traveller (who is a little more liked by Qantas) has an update.

The Qantas First Lounge London Heathrow is still in the works, but is a long ways off from becoming a reality… which is kind of what I expected. What I didn’t fully expect is how far off this is from becoming a reality.

According to Qantas Group’s CEO, Vanessa Hudson, the airline is “still searching for space in London because it’s a very constrained terminal,” and “we haven’t yet been able to secure a space that enables us to start to build a first class lounge, so we are looking at options.”

So there’s no updated timeline for the lounge actually opening, though it sounds like it’s a couple of years off at at a minimum (and more than likely a few years off, or even several years off).

I must admit, I’m a bit confused here. Maybe I’m just totally clueless, but I’ve generally operated under the assumption that when airlines announce planned lounges, they’ve actually secured the space needed to open said lounges.

I’d get if the announcement had been “we’d like to open a lounge in London at some point, but we haven’t been able to find the space.” But the announcement specifically pointed to a late 2025 opening, and stated the lounge would “feature direct access to boarding gates, sweeping views of the airfield, a focus on wellbeing features and an unrivalled dining experience.” That seems rather specific when there’s not actually any lounge space, no?

Bottom line

A new Qantas First Lounge was supposed to open at London Heathrow Terminal 3 in late 2025. The bad news is that not only has construction not started on the new lounge, but a space for the lounge hasn’t even been secured yet. The good news is that Qantas does still plan to open this lounge, assuming the airline can find the space.

It would be awesome if this actually happened, though in the meantime, I remain a bit confused about such a specific announcement for something that was nowhere close to being finalized.

What do you make of this Qantas First Lounge Heathrow development?