Relief for bosses over T5 switch

By Tom Symonds
Transport correspondent, BBC News

BA says it is confident early problems will not reoccur

A number of long-haul flights have transferred to Heathrow's Terminal 5, more than a month later than planned.

British Airways will be mightily relieved to have got through another crunch day at T5 unscathed.

The flights moving included eight flagship services to New York, as well as others to Beijing, Lagos, Cape Town, Cairo, Bangalore and Abuja. In all, 30 extra flights now arrive and depart from T5, making a total of 424.

Passengers told the BBC they had been surprised and pleased to find their bags waiting for them when they arrived in the reclaim area. BA said most were unloaded and delivered within 20 minutes of the plane landing.

But there was a risk of problems, even with this small increase in flights. They are all long-haul services using larger aircraft. T5 is now dealing with an extra 7,000 passengers a day and 4,000 bags, around 15% more.

'Running to spec'

One of the routes switching was London-Lagos, notorious among airlines for the number of bags its passengers check in - including 30 for one passenger, according to a British Airways manager on Thursday morning.

There was one isolated problem on a flight from Zurich. A baggage container jammed and 12 passengers had to wait more than an hour for their luggage.

At least managers now know what can go wrong

But the British Airways chief executive, Willie Walsh, had been bullish about this phase of Terminal Five's opening.

He told reporters at the International Air Transport Association conference in Istanbul that the media interest in T5 was "misplaced", because 3m passengers had passed through without complaint.

The airport operator BAA says its baggage system is now performing well, after concerns about baggage labels being "misread" by scanners.

The senior BAA spokesman at Heathrow, Damon Hunt, said: "We don't want to oversell it, but the baggage system is outperforming other systems across the airport.

"It's now running to spec, and British Airways is starting to reap the benefits."

Admitted mistakes

British Airways is also confident early problems that resulted in baggage loaders and handlers not being at the right gates at the right times will not reoccur.

In March a lack of familiarity with the new building was part of the problem. Staff now have two-and-a-half months of experience working at Terminal Five.

Since the disaster of 27 March, Mr Walsh has admitted mistakes were made in the run-up to the opening of the terminal. The construction work had overrun and BA cut short testing and training as a result.

The airline now has a trained workforce, and systems that have been tested. At least managers now know what can go wrong.

And there remains plenty of slack in the system. T5 still is not full, and will not be until later in the year when the final phase of flights transfer across.