Terminal 5 fliers hit by fresh chaos

Published on Sunday 28 June 2009 21:58

THOUSANDS of air passengers had their travel plans thrown into chaos yesterday when the baggage system at Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5 broke down again on one of the busiest weekends of the year.

In the worst disruption since the complex's shambolic opening last year, passengers were unable to check in luggage for nearly four hours because of a problem with the sorting system.

Many travellers were forced to travel with only hand luggage, had to wait for later flights or cancelled their trips.

Some complained of being further hampered by boarding cards that were rejected by security scanners and had to be reissued.

British Airways, which operates all flights from the terminal, admitted a "sizeable" number of its passengers had been hit by the disruption. The terminal, BA's hub at the world's busiest international airport, handles some 60,000 passengers a day, including Scots on flights to and from Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

BA said it had been a very busy weekend because of the holiday season. It was also the peak weekend of the year for the Scottish airports following the start of the school holidays.

A BA spokesman said a backlog of baggage had built up after check-in was suspended around 2pm, but he was unable to say how many bags were involved or how long it would take to clear.

Martin Flanagan, The Scotsman's City editor, who was flying to Nice, said the terminal was full of unhappy passengers.

He said: "There were queues everywhere of hundreds and hundreds of people trying to rebook their flights. It seemed like a return to the fiasco of a year ago.

"People were unable to check in their luggage because of a major failure of the baggage belt, and were then sent back to check-in by security staff because their boarding cards were not working. That was the straw that broke the camel's back."

Mr Flanagan said he had been delayed by only a few hours, but others had fared far worse.

He said he had spoken to passengers who had missed a flight to Mauritius which operated just twice a week.

The British Airports Authority (BAA), which runs the terminal, apologised for the "obvious inconvenience" to passengers and British Airways.

A spokeswoman said last night: "Check-in at Heathrow's Terminal 5 has now recommenced and we are working hard with our colleagues at British Airways to help passengers to continue their journeys.

"The problem with our baggage system has been identified and resolved. We will be working overnight to ensure that we do all we can to ensure that the terminal operates smoothly tomorrow.

"We hope that passengers wishing to depart tonight will be able to do so."

British Airways said it been able to resume luggage check-in at about 5.45pm. A spokesman said: "We are re-booking, refunding and re-routing passengers, and providing hotel accommodation where necessary.

"BAA informed us of a problem with its baggage system in Terminal 5 today.

"As a result of the problem some passengers have been unable to check in bags. Check-in has now reopened but there will be some delays. We apologise to our customers for the inconvenience. We are doing every-thing we can to minimise the disruption."

The spokesman said no flights were cancelled as a result of the disruption.

However, he said he was unaware with a problem with boarding cards at the terminal yesterday.

Faults with operation of the baggage system at the 4.3 billion terminal's opening in March last year led to the cancellation of some 500 flights.

A total of 23,000 bags went astray, which took around two months to deal with.

British Airways has since highlighted the smooth running of the complex, which it has been keen to show off again as its global showpiece.