Saturday March 29, 10:48 PM
Baggage chaos at London Heathrow to last into next week: BA
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LONDON (AFP) - British Airways (LSE: BAY.L - news) said Saturday that delays and cancellations at London Heathrow airport's new terminal would last into next week, amid claims that the extent of the problems were worse than admitted.
The airline said about 13 percent of short-haul and European flights in and out of Terminal 5 (T5) would be cancelled Monday, with the expectation that a similar number would be cut on Tuesday.
There would be a "progressively larger flying programme throughout the week", it said in a statement but added: "This is dependent on the performance of the baggage system."
A total of 66 flights were cancelled Saturday -- 12 more than originally announced -- with a further 37 flights set to be pulled Sunday.
So far, nearly 250 flights have been cancelled since T5 opened on Thursday because of computer glitches affecting the new baggage handling system.
BA said earlier they were trying to "reunite" 15,000 bags with their owners but the BBC, quoting an unnamed airport source, said the true figure could be as high as 20,000 and would take weeks to sort out.
It (Frankfurt: A0MLX5 - news) illustrated the problems with still photographs of mountains of suitcases stacked up in the terminal after passengers were unable to reclaim them or were forced to fly on to their destinations without their luggage.
As business leaders called the situation a public relations disaster for BA, London and Britain, the BBC said it had been banned from filming at the terminal, where hundreds of passengers were facing long delays.
Sky News television also said it had been locked out.
The baggage chaos is the latest embarrassment for BA, which has exclusive use of the 8.7-billion-dollar (5.6-billion-euro) terminal that was officially opened to great fanfare by Queen Elizabeth II earlier this month.
Passengers arriving Saturday morning said many of the public payphones and all but one of the 16 lifts were out of order, although that is the responsibility of airport operator BAA.
BA promised, and said it had kept to, maximum delays of 30 or 40 minutes, but passengers said that did not take into account cancellations and rebookings.
"We've spent a whole day in here when we could have been in Paris having fun," said Patti Conroy, from Seattle on the US west coast. "I'll just go home if it's cancelled again."
BA laid on a coach and ferry for a party of about 40 pupils heading to Germany for an eight-day language exchange trip after their flight to Stuttgart was cancelled. One parent described the situation as "embarrassing."
Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly said she had spoken to both BA and operator BAA, which is owned by Spanish construction group Ferrovial.
She told them them the problems were their responsibility but that the government stood ready to assist.
The Times newspaper said BA was facing fines of up to 5,000 pounds per passenger for breaking European rules by misleading stranded passengers about a 100-pound cap on their compensatory hotel bills.
There have also been reports of scuffles between baggage handlers, staff and passengers while the Unite union said workers' concerns about baggage handling procedures, staff familiarisation and training had "fallen on deaf ears."
The Financial Times meanwhile said the chaos had forced British Airways to postpone an advertising campaign scheduled for next week that had planned to trumpet the speed with which passengers could move through T5.
T5 -- the first new facility to be built at the airport in 20 years -- is designed to handle 30 million passengers a year and alleviate notorious overcrowding at the west London air transport hub.
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