More flights cancelled at Heathrow airport
[7th April 2008]
There are more flight cancellations at Heathrow airport today as a knock-on effect of the snow, but BAA claims it has fixed the problem that has plagued the baggage handling system at Terminal 5.
British Airways says that as a result of the bad weather on Sunday it has had to cancel a number of flights at Heathrow and at Gatwick airport, and is advising customers to check the latest flight information before they travel to the airport. Around 10% of flights at Terminal 5 today are likely to be cancelled.
Saturday was supposed to have been the first day of normal operation at Terminal 5 since it opened on 27 March. But further problems with the baggage system - which was supposed to have been fixed - meant there were more flight cancellations.
On Saturday BAA said: "This morning a software problem has arisen in the baggage system at T5. This is entirely BAA's responsibility". BAA then apologised to both British Airways and passengers. Bizarrely, the airport operator added: "While we know what the problem is, and have a potential solution, we are having to carefully consider how and when we apply this, to avoid further problems. We will provide further updates when appropriate".
At mid afternoon on Saturday BAA stated: "For the rest of the day, it has been agreed that BA will introduce a manual element to the baggage process, to protect the flight schedule as much as possible and to keep disruption to the airline and passengers to a minimum".
The software problem was finally fixed early on Sunday morning and BAA announced the baggage system was working well. But it never rains but it snows for BAA and BA, and the unseasonal weather then arrived on Sunday to cause more than 100 flights to be cancelled at Heathrow as well as more than 40 at Gatwick airport.
Written by: Nick Purdom
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