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T5 fiasco costs BA £16m, but it will all be ok by Saturday
Dick Murray, Transport Editor3 Apr 2008
The Terminal 5 fiasco will cost British Airways £16 million, the carrier admitted today.
BA, which is still having to cancel flights a week after the botched launch of the £4.3 billion Heathrow terminal, said the figure reflected "all costs associated with the disruption".
The figure is lower than some City estimates. However, it does not include longer-term damage done to BA's reputation. Many passengers have said they will never fly with BA again.
BA claimed today that full operation of flights will begin from Saturday - the first time the terminal has functioned as intended. The airline cancelled scores of flights after systems could not cope with the volume of luggage. A total of 34 BA trips did not fly today, compared with the previous two days when more than 50 were cancelled.
BA is confident it can operate 100 per cent of planned flights this weekend. But baggage handlers are still sorting 14,000 pieces of lost luggage.
• A senior Labour MP said civil servants should be disciplined if they are found to have colluded with BAA over Heathrow expansion. Former environment minister Michael Meacher claimed Department for Transport staff helped BAA strip negative information from consultation documents. The Government denies the claim.
