Flights axed amid Terminal 5 chaos

BA suffered a second day of travel chaos at T5

British Airways cancelled dozens of flights on Friday as travel chaos continued at Heathrow's new £4.3 billion Terminal 5.

By 8am a total of 36 flights - all of them short-haul - had been axed, and BA had brought in extra staff to cope with passengers who had started queueing as early as 4am.

Amid jostling in the queues, some missed their flights - blaming a lack of desks open to cope with the large numbers, and misinformation.

But having suspended luggage check-in on Thursday after mounting baggage-system problems, BA was at least able to allow hold baggage to be carried on all flights.

A BA spokesman said: "We will have to see how the system holds up. We hope we will do a better job than yesterday (Thursday)."

Friday marked the second day of operations at the new terminal, which was officially opened earlier this month by the Queen.

The hopes of BA and airport operator BAA that the first day would be a triumph were wrecked by a succession of teething problems which led to 34 flight cancellations, long queues and delayed baggage.

There was more disruption from early on Friday, with arguments breaking out between some of the early arrivals.

BA had held meetings through the night to try to ease the problems.

Many passengers were left stranded overnight, with some finding hotels, but others were forced to sleep on benches or the terminal floor.

British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh admitted the airline expected to have "some cancellations tomorrow", admitting that Thursday's opening was "not our finest hour" and that BA had "got things wrong".

Heathrow hitches rile passengers

Passengers expressed anger after a series of problems at T5

By Nathan Rees, PA

Many passengers at Heathrow were left fuming after the Terminal 5 chaos left them stranded with cancelled or missed flights.

A long queue of weary looking travellers snaked back from the BA customer service desk where staff were attempting to cope with hundreds of people trying to rebook, find another flight or get a refund.

Thor Joergernsen was travelling back to Oslo from a two-week holiday in Lanzarote with his wife and two daughters via Heathrow, but found their connecting flight was cancelled.

He said: "We got here at 3am (on Friday) and our flight was supposed to leave at 7.15am, but it was cancelled and they didn't tell us.

"They didn't tell us where to go and we have been moving from queue to queue. We have been waiting for hours and my children have had to try and sleep in the airport. It's terrible.

"They are trying to get us on a Scandanavian flight now so we can hope, I guess. I am shocked by all of this. It feels like we are crash landed here."

Tony Pascoe, 35, from Witney, Oxfordshire, said he arrived just after 4am with his mother Ann for a holiday to Vienna - her first ever flight.

He said: "None of the desks were open and we were told to stand in a queue. After standing there for God knows how long they opened one and people who had just walked into the terminal began jumping in. It was chaotic.

"Everyone who had been queuing was annoyed and a lot of jostling and arguing started. Then the desk just crashed so everyone was stood there.

"Our flight was due to leave at 6.45am so I stood in one queue and my mum in another. Eventually they told us we weren't going to get on.

"I feel like just giving up and going home but my mum is keen to fly because it is her first ever trip. There were lots of other people in the same situation and we all seemed to be getting the wrong information.

"It is diabolical. I am a frequent traveller and this is the worst experience ever - it is absolutely shocking."

Jennifer Denzler, 30, was due to return to Basle in Switzerland on Thursday with her partner but had to find a hotel after their flight was cancelled.

She said: "We were waiting quite a long time and it was difficult because you could see that some of the flights were cancelled, but not the one to Basle.

"The BA staff tried to provide a good service and it was not easy for them. But it was not very comfortable for the passengers.

"We were given a leaflet and managed to find a hotel ourselves and BA said they would reimburse the cost for that and for food and travel.

"We tried to ring the helpline number but it was constantly busy. We are keeping our fingers crossed."

Gavin Bennett, 25, from Fife in Scotland, was philosophical when he arrived to find his flight was one of those cancelled.

He said: "Hopefully they will switch me to another airport because I have an open ticket. I am hoping to fly back but I will take the train if I have to."

"I guess this is just one of those things. It may just be teething problems that will get sorted out, but I guess they may have been too complacent."

Another angry passenger, who didn't want to be named, simply said after his flight was cancelled: "I have one word for this - embarrassment."

T5 kick starts expansion programme

Terminal 5's opening signals a new phase of expansion at Heathrow

By Peter Woodman, PA Air Correspondent

Notwithstanding its abject opening, the new £4.3 billion Terminal 5 (T5) at Heathrow is set to kick start a huge programme of UK airport expansion.

To the chagrin of residents' groups and environmentalists the Government is backing grandiose plans for growth at Heathrow.

And at another BAA-run main London airport - Stansted - bosses have just submitted plans for a second runway.

The Government's support for growth is backed, not unnaturally, by BAA and the airlines. But slightly more surprisingly given the sometimes-awful conditions in which they have to fly, the public is also driving the demand for expansion.

For despite the credit crunch and the Stock Market fluctuations, more and more Britons are wanting to fly.

Much of the increase is down to the low-fare carriers such as Ryanair and easyJet who have opened up parts of Europe that many Britons had never previously heard off.

And the increasing passenger numbers at UK airports has shown that despite money worries and the prospect of standing in long queues and having luggage lost, Britons put flying and holidays at the top of their priority list.

To cater for all this, BAA at Heathrow has big plans. Having opened the first part of T5, the company is scheduled to open the terminal's second phase - T5C - in 2010.

Meanwhile, an extensive redevelopment of Terminal 4 at Heathrow is under way, which includes an upgrade of the arrivals and immigration areas.

Then there is Heathrow East - a scheme in which Terminal 2, the airport's oldest passenger building, will be demolished and a new terminal built to replace T2 and Terminal 1.

Whether Spanish-owned BAA, which also runs Gatwick, will be around to complete the schemes is uncertain. The company is the subject of a Competition Commission inquiry into its ownership of UK airports.

Earlier this month, the House of Commons Transport Committee recommended that BAA's monopoly of London airports be broken up, saying the company had "mismanaged resources".

But whoever runs UK airports and despite the intense lobbying of the anti-airport expansion groups, there seems little chance of the British public's love of flying cooling off.

Cameron warning over airport chaos

David Cameron warned T5's teething troubles hit Heathrow's expansion case

By David Hughes, PA Political Staff

Tory leader David Cameron said the "humiliating" events at Heathrow's Terminal 5 could hamper the case for further expansion at the airport.

Addressing an audience of City leaders Mr Cameron expressed his sympathy for those caught up in the chaos of the landmark building's opening.

He said: "The scenes were completely dreadful. You feel for anyone there.

"There were people who were on their way to the airport expecting Terminal 5 to be this great experience, who were texted to say their flights were cancelled before they even arrived.

"It was humiliating to see that happening."

He said there were "tough tests" to be met before considering future expansion plans including a third runway and sixth terminal.

He said: "It should go through the planning system in the proper way, but we believe there are some very tough tests - about noise pollution, about carbon dioxide - that have to be met because of the enormous controversy there is over Heathrow."

He added: "Recent events don't exactly strengthen the case, if I can put it that way."

T5 the size of 50 football pitches

Terminal 5 is designed to handle 82,000 passengers per day

By Peter Woodman, PA Air Correspondent

Heathrow airport's new £4.3 billion Terminal 5 (T5) has the capacity to handle 30 million passengers a year.

: The new terminal is as big as 50 football pitches, being 1,300ft long, 525ft wide and 140ft high.

: For the exclusive use of the UK's biggest airline, British Airways, T5 is - when working well - able to handle 82,000 passengers a day.

: BA has moved nearly all its Heathrow Terminal 1 and Terminal 4 operations into T5.

: The T5 sophisticated baggage system - which has so far failed spectacularly - should be capable of dealing with 12,000 bags an hour - roughly double BA's baggage capacity at T1 and T4.

: Luggage whizzes round on more than 10 miles of belts and tracks, with late-running bags being sent on a separate fast-track conveyor belt to get to the plane on time.

: BA and Heathrow have been plagued by luggage problems of late, and the T5 bag system had been the subject of extensive tests over many months.

: BA had promised before T5's opening day that after arriving at check-in, passengers should be able to proceed through to departures within 10 minutes.

: In normal circumstances, passengers with luggage going into aircraft holds should be able to drop their bags at one of more than 90 fast-drop luggage desks.

: Travellers have to present their boarding passes at the ready-to-fly desk at least 35 minutes before flight departure time to avoid delays to already-boarded passengers while latecomers attempt a last-minute dash through security.

: Unlike the current situation at Heathrow, where passengers have to double back and around to continue their journey after checking in, T5 travellers continue in a straight line from check-in desks.

: BA reckons that 80% of passengers will use self-service channels to check in.

: A second stage of T5 - a satellite building known as T5C - will open in May 2010.