Saturday, March 29, 2008

What did go wrong at Terminal 5?

From the BBC News website dated 28th March 2008

Seventy flights have been cancelled in the last two days as teething problems at Heathrow Airport's new Terminal 5 caused chaos. But what actually went wrong?

The problems appear to be due to a combination of factors.

Some were technical, involving glitches with the sophisticated new baggage set-up, which is designed to handle 12,000 bags an hour.

But other issues were more mundane. Employees arriving for work, for example, could not find their way to the staff car park.

BA has said "initial teething problems" with car parking, delays in getting staff through security screening and staff familiarisation had resulted in a backlog of baggage which meant severe delays and flight cancellations throughout Thursday.

The first warning signs came as early as 0400 GMT on Thursday when passengers began to arrive, only to be confronted with the same problems as the staff in trying to find somewhere to park.

The road signs were apparently not clear outside the terminal, and people said they were given wrong directions once inside.

But that was only the start of their problems. All the check-in desks were apparently closed at 0400 GMT, leaving passengers no option other than to form a queue.

Then, when one was finally opened, the resulting rush was "chaos" according to one would-be flyer.
Warning signs

The first flight arrived at T5 from Hong Kong at 0442 GMT, slightly ahead of schedule, but its passengers faced a delay of about an hour to collect their bags.

The problems began to mount and by 0630 GMT a queue of about 300 people waiting to board flights had formed, another passenger said.

As the morning wore on, some passengers had to wait up to two-and-a-half hours to collect their suitcases from baggage reclaim.

An underground conveyor system had become clogged up, according to the BBC's transport correspondent Tom Symonds.

This was being blamed on staff failing to remove luggage quickly enough at the final unloading stage.

Further technical faults also meant seven flights also had to leave T5 without luggage on board.

Check-in suspended

By Thursday lunchtime the cumulative effect meant BA had to cancel 20 flights.

By early afternoon, a queue of more than 100 people whose flights had been cancelled, stood in line to try to get away on other flights or get refunds.

To make matters worse, the luggage belt in one part of the departure lounge failed.

At about 1630 GMT, all check-in at the new BA Terminal 5 was suspended because of further problems with the baggage system.

Long queues were also building up around that time at the fast-bag drop desks, where passengers leave their luggage after checking in using computer terminals.

By about 1700 GMT, BA suspended the checking in of all luggage going into the hold.

This meant passengers already at the airport had the choice of either flying with just hand luggage, getting an alternative flight or claiming a refund.

By the end of T5's first traumatic day, a total of 34 flights had been cancelled and a lot of passengers had been left stranded, either for a flight or even for their bags.

The knock-on effect continued to be felt on Friday with more cancelled flights but for BA the negative publicity will have an effect for a lot longer.


Return to the This Is Longford website