Heathrow Terminal 2 is celebrating its ten-year anniversary with an indulgent nod to the ‘no rules at the airport’ TikTok trend, which has racked up over six million views in the last six months, by handing out hundreds of cakes… for breakfast.

The delicious birthday treats will be shared from 10am on Tuesday 4th June to mark the milestone and get Terminal 2 passengers on ‘airport time’ – the anything goes mindset 55% of travellers experience when they’ve cleared security and are waiting for their flight to depart. A feeling that new research has found over half of Brits (52%) only otherwise experience on their birthdays.

The study of 2,000 UK adults found that nearly half consider tucking into whatever food and drink they want at whatever time of day their favourite thing about being at the airport (49%). Notably this was also the favourite thing about birthdays for 61% of respondents.

Amongst the ‘airport time’ treats Brits like to indulge in are:

• Eating cake for breakfast (22%)
• Treating themselves to an impulse ‘airport present’ (37%)
• Taking a nap in the middle of the day (29%)
• A morning tipple (62%)
• Shopping before breakfast (33%)
• Eating ice cream late at night or first thing in the morning (15%)

More than 148 million passengers have passed through Terminal 2’s doors, and over 1 million planes have landed and departed, since it opened on 4th June 2014. Highlighting the appetite for airport time, the terminal has revealed that its passengers:

• Fly through 8,920 cakes for breakfast every single day;
• Love a caffeine fix; Caffè Nero alone has sold the equivalent of 44 swimming pools of coffee over the past decade;
• Have global tastes: spend on global cuisine has doubled between 2019 and 2023;
• But are still fans of a classic: the full English and a burger & chips are amongst the most popular meals for hungry passengers.

Paul Ford, Terminal Services Manager for Heathrow Terminal 2, said: “To learn that Heathrow passengers enjoy relaxing and indulging as if they are celebrating a birthday when at the airport goes to show that holidays really do start here! We are extremely proud of every member of Team Heathrow who has contributed towards providing excellent service to almost 73 million passengers who have travelled through Terminal 2 over the last decade, and we can’t wait to see what the next ten years have in store.”

To join in the celebrations, passengers travelling through Heathrow Terminal 2 during the morning of Tuesday 4th June will be offered cake by volunteers from Heathrow’s Services Team from 10am.