Flights Direct

The opening day of Heathrow’s Terminal 5 was a complete disaster – the state-of-the-art baggage handling system didn’t allow staff to login, and the staff was unable to find their car park spaces, among other problems.

BA has had to cancel hundreds of flights, and a week after opening says there are 20,000 bags without owners. The airport authority BAA says the number of misplaced bags is closer to 28,000.

The BA spokeswoman said: “We are throwing resources at this. But as soon as you have bags without their owners there are security issues and it becomes time-consuming.”

BA announced earlier this week that it’s sending thousands of bags to Milan to be sorted out, and the rest to Gatwick, Manchester and Scotland.

Today BA promised that 90% of flights departing from Terminal 5 will be running, and is aiming to get higher during the weekend and early next week.

Flight cancellations are focused on routes with high frequency, so people can be offered alternative flights. There is also the option to re-book a flight or get a refund.

An apology issued by BA said: “Problems developed that were not encountered during the extensive trials. There were problems in car parks, airport areas, computer glitches and the baggage system.”