Monday March 31, 09:48 PM
More flights cancelled as Heathrow bag mountain grows
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LONDON (AFP) - British Airways Chief Executive Willie Walsh said Monday that he was "bitterly disappointed" that the airline's new flagship terminal at London Heathrow had not been as successful as expected.
Walsh insisted, however, that Terminal Five was a "fantastic facility," adding that estimates of the luggage backlog had been overblown and that the airline would begin returning thousands of bags from Tuesday.
The turmoil at the terminal continued Monday, however, as BA cancelled dozens more flights and ministers, including Britain's foreign secretary, slammed the chaos that has engulfed the multi-billion-pound facility.
"I remain very confident that Terminal Five will deliver," Walsh told Sky News.
"It (Frankfurt: A0MLX5 - news) is a fantastic facility, we can make it work. But I have to admit we got it completely wrong on day one."
He said that BA was holding about 19,000 bags in storage, not 28,000 as the government had said earlier, and would begin returning 5,000 from Tuesday, but warned that the process would "take time" because the luggage was being processed manually and not through the terminal's baggage system.
British Airways (LSE: BAY.L - news) -- the only airline using the new terminal -- also cancelled another 54 flights on Monday after a nightmare weekend, while a spokesman said another 50 flights will be cancelled on Tuesday.
"It is extremely regrettable to say the least that passengers using T5 have had to suffer an unacceptably poor travel experience," Aviation Minister Jim Fitzpatrick told the House of Commons.
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, and Walsh was forced to make his second apology in three days on Sunday.
On Monday morning the atmosphere in the terminal -- where huge queues built up last week and people were forced to sleep on the floor because of cancelled flights -- was calm, according to witnesses.
"We've had absolutely no problems this morning, it all seems to be running very smoothly," said Dawn Reece, who came to the airport to see her daughter off on a gap year in Japan.
But later in the day Foreign Secretary David Miliband reported that one of his European Union counterparts had been caught up in the chaos while en route to a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Slovenia.
"He arrived merely to transit, but his bags are nowhere to be seen and it was whispered that it might take weeks," he wrote on his blog on the Foreign Office website.
"He asked me to pass on a message to BA/BAA: for goodness sake get your act together," he added, referring to British Airways and the British Airports Authority, which runs Heathrow.
He gave no indication of which of his 26 EU counterparts was involved.
The spacious facility was meant to be a jewel in the crown of the airports operator and British Airways.
Business leaders called the situation a public relations disaster for BA, London and Britain.
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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