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'Not our finest hour'
29/03/2008 22:25 - (SA)
London - British Airways cancelled more than 100 flights over the weekend following the chaotic opening of its new terminal at London's Heathrow airport.
The launch of the terminal has proved a public relations
disaster for BA, which had hoped the new building would answer
months of criticism prompted by overcrowded facilities at
London's main airport.
The airline said it had cut 66 short-haul and European
flights on Saturday and would cancel 37 more on Sunday after
Terminal 5's grand opening on Thursday descended into farce when
its new baggage handling system failed to cope.
BA, which used to style itself "the world's favourite
airline", said on Saturday 15 000 bags whose owners had either flown or given up and gone home were still in the terminal.
But a spokesperson stressed that since its fanfare opening a
total of 225 000 bags had passed successfully through the
terminal.
She noted that by the end of the weekend 243 flights would
have been cancelled out of a total of 1 320 scheduled since the opening.
The disastrous opening has forced the postponement of an
advertising campaign promoting the new terminal which was due to
have been launched next week, a BA spokesperson said.
The airline said it still planned to complete the second
phase of its move to the new terminal from Heathrow's Terminal 4
at the end of April, although the date was under review.
By then BA plans to have transferred more than 90% of
its Heathrow operations to the vast open-plan building.
BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh has apologised for the
disruption and admitted the move to the terminal was "definitely
not our finest hour".
BA shares fell more than three percent on Friday, hit by the
Heathrow chaos and jitters ahead of Sunday's start of an "open
skies" deal to create greater competition on trans-Atlantic
routes.
The airline faces a sizeable compensation bill for
passengers delayed and forced to stay overnight in hotels.
It cancelled 68 flights on Thursday and 72 on Friday.
Terminal 5 is Britain's largest enclosed space, equivalent
to the size of about 50 soccer pitches. It was touted as the
answer to regular delays at the airport.
British Airways spent months promoting the gleaming
terminal, packed with high-end shops and restaurants, bringing
photographers and journalists from all over the world to show
off the complex.
- Reuters
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