Terminal 5 opening a ‘national embarrassment’
The disastrous opening of £4.3 billion Heathrow Terminal 5 has been criticised by MPs as a “national embarrassment”.
Flight disruption and thousands of lost bags “could and should” have been avoided with better planning, according to the House of Commons transport committee.
Many of the problems were down to “insufficient communication” between British Airways and BAA, the report found.
Poor staff-training and system-testing by BA was also blamed.
More than 36,500 passengers who turned up on the terminal’s opening day on March 27 were confronted by long queues and they had little idea about what was happening.
MPs said they were “astonished” BAA and BA only organised joint meetings once things started going wrong. Both companies were guilty of “serious failings”, the report said.
Committee chairman Louise Ellman MP said: “What should have been an occasion of national pride was in fact an occasion of national embarrassment.”
“The opening of T5 revealed serious failings on the part of both BAA and BA,†the report said.
“Like both organisations, we acknowledge the inevitability of ‘teething problems’ but deeply regret that so many were allowed to bring the operation of Heathrow’s newest terminal to a halt.”
BA and BAA say Terminal 5 has improved and offered apologies for the situation suffered by passengers in March.
by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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