Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 Full Flight Schedule
British Airways has announced that it will operate a full flights schedule at Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5 on Saturday.
It will be the first time that a fully schedule of services will be operated from the new terminal, which has had a chaotic first few days of operation since its opening on 27th March with numerous flight cancellations and delays owing to technical glitches in the terminal's baggage system.
This, coupled with staff familiarisation issues, led to a temporary suspension of baggage check-in and a backlog of thousands of bags across Heathrow.
Over 250 flights in and out of the new £4.3 billion facility were cancelled during the first four days of operation, with the government reporting on Tuesday that some 28,000 passenger bags had been affected.
As of Thursday morning, it was reported that 14,000 pieces of luggage were still needing to be sorted by BA. Staff at London Gatwick Airport and Manchester Airport are also helping with the sorting process.
BA said on Wednesday that bags stranded at Heathrow belonging to passengers from Europe were being couriered to Milan, Italy, where a specialist contractor was sorting them there for return to passengers around the continent.
The airline said they were working "as hard as we can on it", and that there were delays in reununiting passengers with their bags because of the need to observe security guidelines of the screening of lost baggage.
Thursday and Friday Heathrow T5 Flight Cancellations
Despite BA announcing that a full schedule of services would be running from the weekend, there will still be some flight cancellations on Thursday and Friday.
Some 32 flights on Thursday were cancelled, and there will be 34 cancellations on Friday. The cancellations mainly affect those short-haul and domestic flights with high frequencies.
The airline said no long-haul flights would be affected.
The airline has gradually reduced the number of cancellations as this week has progressed.
A BA spokeswoman said the situation at T5 was now "manageable".
Airport International advises travellers using T5 to check the BA website (www.ba.com) or the Heathrow Flight Information website for the very latest, updated schedules.
Heathrow Airport Flight Information
BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh Under Pressure
As the fall-out from the shambolic and embarrassing opening of Heathrow's T5 continues, BA's Chief Executive Willie Walsh is reportedly coming under mounting pressure from the airline's staff.
According to The Times, the union representing 3,000 BA pilots - the British Air Line Pilots' Association (Balpa) is preparing a statement condemning Walsh's leadership. This comes in the midst of a continuing dispute between Balpa and the airline over BA's plans to launch a subsidiary airline, OpenSkies, in June. The union argues that OpenSkies pilots will be diver employed on lesser pay and conditions than their mainline colleagues. The union threatened to strike over Easter, but this was averted.
A major shareholder in British Airways, Axa Investment Managers, has also criticised Willie Walsh's handling of the Terminal 5 situation. The investment fund said: "As yet, [BA] have not been in touch with the investment community to talk about how much this [the Terminal 5 delays] is going to cost".
Source - Airport International's London Reporter
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