You are in > manchester.com  > News > British Airways: more delays for Terminal 5

Business

British Airways: more delays for Terminal 5

05/04/2008

The baggage system at Heathrow's Terminal 5 has failed, leading to more delays and cancellations for British Airways (BA) flights.

The computer problem affects the baggage reconciliation system, which means for security reasons the airline is not loading any bags onto the aircraft where the passenger is not travelling.

BA has to manually reconcile bags for each flight "which takes considerably more time than using the automated system," the carrier said.

BA added: "As a result this has led to flight delays and we have had to make a number of shorthaul cancellations.

"We apologise to passengers for the inconvenience."

The airline was hoping for a smooth operation today with no cancellations, as fewer flights on the weekend help take the pressure off.

Earlier this morning, the airline said: "We want to provide a robust and reliable schedule for our customers. We will move to a consistent 100 per cent weekday schedule as soon as we can."

Chaos at the new terminal, which opened on March 27th, led to 300 cancelled flights, a reported 20,000 missing luggage and frayed nerves.

Supermodel Naomi Campbell was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of assaulting a police officer after a dispute over her luggage led to the police being called in.

Meanwhile, popstar Calvin Harris has announced he lost an album's worth of material kept on a laptop that went missing in the baggage crisis.

BA said it has lost £16 million because of the problems, and passenger traffic is down five per cent in March compared to last year, but said the situation is slowly improving.