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Travel chaos to continue into weekend as BA cancels flights

28/03/2008

British Airways has announced further cancellations on its flight schedule from the new Terminal 5, meaning passengers face more travel chaos over the weekend.

The airline is the only one flying from the newly-opened Heathrow terminal at present, which has been hit by major teething problems in its first week of operations.

The most recent announcement means 27 flights scheduled to leave the terminal on Saturday will not take off, along with another 27 arrivals.

It follows news that 36 of Friday's flights - around 20 per cent of the total air traffic scheduled - had been scrapped.

The falling number in the cancellations suggests problems are beginning to ease, although this is unlikely to be of much consolation to the thousands of paying customers likely to be inconvenienced by the news.

Earlier today, BA apologised to its passengers when the problems with the move to Terminal 5 extended into its second day after its official opening yesterday.

On Thursday, 34 flights were cancelled as the carrier struggled to cope with a breakdown in the baggage handling system, leading to the wrong luggage being loaded onto planes and hours of delays.

Eventually, BA suspended the system, and passengers were told they could only take hand luggage on board.

In a statement on its website, BA offered a refund for passengers on all cancelled flights.

"We are extremely sorry for the inconvenience this has caused our customers," the airline said.

"It is extremely disappointing disruption happened on the first day of our operations from Terminal 5.

"The move to Terminal 5 is one of the biggest and most complex airport moves ever undertaken. We are working hard, together with airport operator, BAA, to resolve the issue as quickly as possible."