Sunday March 30, 10:00 PM
BA says sorry again for London airport terminal farce
By Roland Jackson
LONDON (AFP) - British Airways (LSE: BAY.L - news) apologised again Sunday for the cancelled flights, passenger delays and lost baggage that have emerged from the chaotic opening of London Heathrow airport's new Terminal 5.
"Since Thursday, when Terminal 5 opened, we have made clear that the service we have provided has not been good enough. We apologise sincerely to our customers," BA chief executive Willie Walsh said in a company statement.
His comments came after BA ditched another batch of flights on Sunday as it struggled to cope with a massive backlog of lost luggage at the multi-billion-pound facility.
"We are sorry for the disruption and inconvenience caused to customers whose flights have been cancelled or whose bags have been delayed," added Walsh, making his second apology in three days.
"We will not rest until our service has been restored to the high standard customers rightly expect."
BA, which has sole use of T5, has confirmed that it had scrapped 37 of its 331 flights that were planned to and from the terminal on Sunday.
A spokesman for the airline said the terminal would be at 87 percent capacity on Monday and Tuesday, and added that passengers affected by delays and cancellations would be informed by email or text message in advance.
Terminal Five has been blighted by logistical troubles ever since it opened to much fanfare on Thursday, with problems compounded by a major computer glitch in the luggage handling system.
British Airways would aim to increase the number of T5 services in the coming days, added Walsh, who had already apologised to passengers on Friday.
Meanwhile, BA was working to return about 15,000 pieces of luggage to their owners -- and has already warned that passenger delays and cancellations at the terminal will last into next week.
"The baggage system is now generally working well," Walsh said, but added that there were problems that were being dealt with by engineers and IT (Frankfurt: A0MLX5 - news) specialists from BA and airports operator BAA.
"A backlog of undelivered bags has built up. This backlog is not affecting the day-to-day operation of the baggage system, and we are making every effort to reunite delayed bags with their owners," Walsh said.
Long-haul flights on Sunday were operating as scheduled, but some domestic and European flights have been ditched from T5.
Heathrow's brand-new terminal, which cost 4.3 billion pounds (8.7 billion dollars, 5.6 billion euros) to build, has been mired in controversy ever since it opened on Thursday.
The spacious facility was meant to be a jewel in the crown of British airports operator BAA, which owns and operates Heathrow, and British Airways, which currently enjoys exclusive use of T5.
So far however, almost 250 flights have been cancelled, with a total of 66 flights pulled on Saturday -- 12 more than originally announced.
The carrier said that 400 of its staff members had volunteered to work on Sunday to help sift through the estimated 15,000 pieces of luggage.
However 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 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.
Business leaders called the situation a public relations disaster for BA, London and Britain. Both the BBC and Sky News said they had been banned from filming at the terminal, where hundreds of passengers were facing long delays.
T5, which was unveiled earlier this month by Queen Elizabeth II, was designed to handle 30 million passengers a year and alleviate notorious overcrowding at the world's busiest international air hub.
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