Her Majesty The Queen officially opens Heathrow Airport's stunning £4.3bn Terminal 5 at lunchtime today, 53 years after opening the airport's first passenger terminal in 1955.

Built on time and on budget, the terminal will open for business for up to 30 million passengers a year on 27 March.

The Queen will be initially greeted by hundreds of airport and construction workers in front of a backdrop of giant screens depicting heroic shots celebrating the construction of Terminal 5.

Some 60,000 people have worked a total of 100 million man hours to build Terminal 5 since construction work began in September 2002.

The project team has successfully erected the UK's biggest free-standing building; moved the 900t top cab of a new 87m high control tower 2km across the airfield; tunnelled over 13km for rail and baggage links; diverted two rivers; and installed over 30,000 square metres of glass building facades.