Fasten your seatbelts for T5 summer of hell

Holidaymakers are facing a summer of hell at Heathrow, experts warned today.

Growing passenger numbers will send the baggage system into meltdown and create massive queues at Terminal 5, according to insiders.

The number of bags handled at the terminal will treble to 75,000 when long-haul flights are transferred to the £4.3 billion building in June.
Passengers will double to 80,000 a day. Yet BAA said there were no plans to change the handling system that fell into chaos last month.

A T5 source said: "Everyone here is bracing themselves for when long-haul passengers arrive. If staff think they are under pressure now it will be nothing compared with what lies ahead."

The flagship terminal became a cardboard city after its opening on 27 March, with hundreds of flights cancelled and passengers forced to sleep on the floor. Two executives have been sacked but BA claims many of the 'nuts and bolts' problems have been ironed out.

Shadow transport secretary Theresa Villiers said: "I am very worried about whether they will be able to cope with three times the amount of baggage given the current system."

Officials are still aiming to transfer long-haul flights by June but there are clear signs the move could be delayed.

BA chief executive Willie Walsh said the move could be spread out between the start of June and the end of October to ease the strain. Air industry consultant John Strickland warned this could leave hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded between terminals.

"People will find they are booked on itineraries which will now not work as they are based on a one-hour connection time at T5," he said.

"Now they'll need two hours as there is a big physical distance between T5 and T4."

City analyst Andrew Fitchie, of Collins Stewart, said it would be months before the terminal was running smoothly.

"There have been bugs in the software which have been exacerbated by BA staff not being used to the new systems," he said.

"Will that all be sorted out in a month? Perhaps not. But over three months I would expect them to be having the problem wrapped up."

Insurance companies have restored full cover to passengers using Terminal 5. Earlier this week firms including Direct Line, Churchill and Privilege had said they would not compensate people for lost luggage or delayed flights if they bought a policy during the chaos.