Audio: Day 1 at Heathrow

More than an hour after arriving at a gleaming new Terminal 5, and still waiting to be reunited with her luggage, a frustrated Karina Lehnen declared: “It’s a shambles”.

On a day that had been trumpeted by BA and BAA executives as heralding the future in air travel, most of her fellow travellers agreed.

Despite 18 months of trials, state-of-the-art computers, 10 miles of conveyor belts and a capacity for 12,000 bags an hour, the first day of operations at the world’s newest terminal had descended into chaos and misery for thousands of passengers.

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BACKGROUND

• T5: 'More akin to a band-aid applied to a severed limb'

• Heathrow chaos to continue over weekend

• Heathrow T5 chaos: travellers' tales

• Commentary: what a shambles

• Your views on BA - the world's least favourite airline?

Multimedia

• Pictures: Heathrow's Terminal 5 chaos

Multimedia

• Video: Chaos at Terminal 5

• Heathrow Terminal 5 - the first day

• Video tour: inside Heathrow Terminal Five

Sandra Murphy, of Galway, summed it up succinctly: “I’m fuming. Terminal 5 — worst, BA — worst. I waited for my baggage for two and a half hours and the staff in there refused to get a message to my husband.

“The money on this terminal was not well spent, the layout is rubbish and if I could avoid this airport I would never come back.”

She was not alone in her frustration. Hundreds of passengers last night expressed their fury at the flight cancellations and delays that ensued from the breakdown in BAA’s sophisticated new baggage system.

By last night at least 33 flights had been cancelled, while rumours circulated from disgruntled handlers that only 40 per cent of bags were making it to the right destinations on time.

Melanie Browden, who flew into the new terminal from Los Angeles, said that she waited three and a half hours for her bag: “There was no information at all. I asked one of the managers what was going on and they laughed at me, telling me, ‘this is what happens with a new terminal.’ ”

Satyanadan Naidu had flown in from California to visit her mother, who recently suffered a heart attack. Ms Naidu commented that the meltdown at the airport was “enough to give me a heart attack as well”.

Many passengers, frustrated by the delays, walked out of the baggage reclaim without collecting their luggage. Kate Adam, 39, gave up after 90 minutes: “I am furious. Staff have been really surly. They can send my bags on to me.” In the early afternoon, as British Airways admitted a “few minor problems” had blighted the day, a huge queue of more than 100 people snaked back from the flight cancellation desk.

Passengers described the debacle as unacceptable, also criticising the lack of organisation and lack of information that was passed on to them.

While hitches on the first day of operations were acceptable, they said, complete chaos was not.

Robert Looker, newly arrived from San Francisco with his family, was none too impressed after having to wait two and a half hours for his luggage. “Everyone accepts teething problems on the first day,” he said. “The whole concept of the new terminal is the effortless, seamless transition from place to place, but in this case, it has failed to do that.”

Jason Barrow, a broker from Radleet, Hertfordshire, spent three hours by an unmoving conveyer belt, after arriving from Amsterdam. “We couldn’t get off the plane at first because the first set of steps appeared broken. Then, we were told our luggage would be delayed for more than two hours, without any explanation,” he said. “There are a few irate people here.”

One of them was Joan Harpham, who lost her bag during the long haul from California. “When we left San Francisco, we were really excited at arriving in this brand-new terminal. But with all these problems, it is not the nicest reception.”

Shortly before 5pm, passengers waiting in the departure hall were told that no-one would be permitted to fly with their baggage for the remainder of the day. It left many of them unable to travel.

But BA refused to put them up in a hotel. The airline gave passengers a telephone number to re-book their flights, and a message explained that the company was “unable to provide a hotel room during this disruption”.

Its message continued: “If you make your own arrangements we will be happy to consider reimbursement of some of your out of pocket expenses.”

Some would-be passengers bedded down in the airport rather than incur even more costs for their day.

One Greek couple said that they did not want to pay the £200 demanded by local hotels and were preparing to stay awake until their 8am flight to Athens.

The pair, who did not wish to be named, said: “I don’t think we’re going to sleep but we just didn’t want to pay that kind of money. We come from Greece where we have lots of complaints about Olympic airlines but you always think British Airways is going to be perfect.”

One sign in the new terminal said “fast bag drop” — it was anything but. The queue hadn’t moved for half an hour and Robin and Barry Watts were getting anxious. The flight at stake was a to their home in Australia, with a connection in Hong Kong and accommodation already paid for.

“When we discovered we would be flying on the first day of the new terminal,” said Robin Watts said, “we were excited that we would be making history. Now that looks like it’s going to backfire and could be memorable for all the wrong reasons.”

As the last of the sunlight filtered through the spacious terminal, passengers were left with no choice but to hang around and become increasingly frustrated. Chris Smith, 26, an off-duty pilot, was beginning to accept that he probably wouldn’t make it to Aberdeen as scheduled.

“Every airport has its problems but you just have to grin and bear it,” he said, generously.

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