British Airways lose 15,000 bags at new Heathrow terminal
British Airways tonight apologised again to passengers hit by cancellations, crippled facilities and delays at Heathrow’s new Terminal 5 after admitting that 15,000 bags were lost in the system.
After announcing that 12 extra flights, on top of the predicted 54 had been scrapped, the company this evening confessed it now faced the task of ’reuniting’ the scattered luggage with owners.
A spokesman for BA said tonight: “On the whole, the day has gone reasonably well. We did have one or two difficulties this morning which caused us to cancel more flights than were planned.
“The baggage system as a whole has caused additional problems – we are looking at it closely and trying to pin it down. It is a very complex and sophisticated system.”
“Obviously we are extremely sorry that this has caused disruption to the passengers.”
Speaking on the lost luggage issue a separate spokeswoman said: “It is 15,000 we need to reunite with their owners. To put this into context we process 75,000 bags everyday.
“We are trying to do everything we can to get them back. For UK customers this could mean a courier service, and for those overseas, we are looking at next available flights or sea travel.”
Passengers arriving this morning expressed frustration that many of the phones and all but one of the lifts were out of order.
One technical support specialist paid to give customers advice on the floor of T5 revealed: “There are 16 lifts and only one is working – how can you have an international airport like that? If I was to blame anyone I would blame BAA, they are in charge of the lifts, trolleys and phones.
“The airport does look beautiful but it looks at bit like Asda when they are in the middle of restocking.”
Ray Goldrick, 59, from Manchester was forced to borrow a mobile from the adviser, employed by an outsourced firm, because he and his wife could not find a kiosk that was working.
Then at mid-morning it was announced that a further 12 flights were to be cancelled, on top of the 54 announced on Friday, making 66.
Cancellations to 37 flights are predicted tomorrow.
BA moved to comfort customers early in the day by promising maximum delays of 30 or 40 minutes, which it said this evening it had stuck to.
But that did not take into account cancellations and rebookings which passengers claimed amounted to delays of hours or days.
Patti Conroy, 58, from Seattle, was told last night her flight had been put back by eight hours.
Mrs Conroy, who is flying to Paris to see friends as part of a European tour, said: “Last night they cancelled the flight and rebooked us.
“When we first got here we were told that the flight wasn’t cancelled, then we were told it was. When we looked online it still claimed it wasn’t cancelled. It is extremely confused and I feel frustrated and disappointed.
“We’ve spent a whole day in here when we could have been in Paris having fun. I’ll just go home if it’s cancelled again. There aren’t even any direct flights to Seattle.
“I thought they would have sorted the bugs out by now, given that the first day was such a disaster, we are into the third day now.”
She was still unable to check in this morning, due to a temporary suspension caused by baggage build up.
She added: “They can’t handle it so they just cancel and rebook.”
Flights to Rome, Paris, Milan and Budapest were among the doomed journeys.
BA blamed a ’backlog’ of baggage for the delays and cancellations, which also caused intermittent suspension of check-ins for two hours.
Transport Minister in the UK Ruth Kelly, accused of being ’invisible’ during the crisis said: “I have spoken with BA and BAA and, while the problems at Terminal 5 are for them to resolve, I have made clear that the government stands ready to assist where appropriate. Everything possible must be done to deliver a better service for passengers who are unfortunately still facing disruption and delays to their journeys.”
The Conservatives have called for an inquiry into the “chaos and confusion”, while the British Chambers of Commerce said T5 was a “PR disaster for London and the UK”.
BA’s spokeswoman said she was ’not aware’ of a reported melee between 30 baggage handlers on Thursday, detailed in the Sun newspaper.
Unite National Secretary for Civil Aviation, Steve Turner, said: “There are problems, which to their credit BA have acknowledged. We are ready to sit down with management at any time to get to work on putting these right, to protect the reputation of BA as the world’s leading carrier, and ensure that T5 becomes the envy of the industry that it rightly should be and undoubtedly will become.”
The meltdown has been put down to a “combination of problems” such as difficulties getting staff into the building, a computer glitch blamed on “human error” and a failure of the baggage system led to chaotic scenes on the opening day leading to 34 return flights being cancelled.
