T5 Chaos Continues To Rule
As news that British Airways have cancelled another 50 flights starts to filter through into the market place, you might be forgiven for thinking that tensions at T5 are easing. However, on the ground the reality is a little different with more and more frustrated passengers and unconfirmed reports that the luggage mountain has now reached a staggering 30,000 items!
It has to be said that while heralded as a new dawn for the industry, the opening of T5 has just been one problem after another. British Airways are rumoured to be planning to axe yet more flights in the days ahead in order that they can catch up on the lost luggage mountain they have at the airport. The cost to the company has been placed as high as £20 million but this is before the expected barrage of law suits both in the UK and US as well as claims for lost revenue from an array of other airlines around the world. The total cost to British Airways at the end of the day could be 10 times or more than the £20 million forecast currently doing the rounds. So what next?
Willie Walsh, the chief executive of British Airways, has come in for some major criticism over the last few days with many on the inside claiming that there were concerns about the new baggage handling system before it went live last week. It seems that while a final check run was completed, a number of issues were apparent but do not seem to have been rectified ahead of the full launch. The new terminal was actually built for British Airways, who dominate Heathrow, but it seems that there is still a long way to go before we see the best out of the new technology. Willie Walsh is under extreme pressure to rectify the situation as soon as possible, but you cannot simply make 30,000 lost bags disappear overnight!