Senior managers at British Airways were warned as recently as two weeks ago that their plans for a “big bang” move to Terminal 5 would result in chaos and cancelled flights.

The Unite and GMB unions both told BA that its 2,000 baggage staff had not been properly trained to use the automated baggage-handling system. They recommended that the airline should stagger the transfer of flights from terminals 1 and 4 over several weeks rather than moving 380 flights — 70 per cent of the airline’s daily total — in one day. BA claimed to have been training staff and carrying out trials for six months but baggage handlers said they had received only a cursory introduction. One said: “The familiarisation was just a walk-through the terminal and a lecture on what a wonderful building it was.”

The problems started when staff were unable to get into car parks and there were too few buses to take them to the terminal. There were also long delays because only one security arch for staff was open.

The baggage system is designed to handle 12,000 bags an hour but shuts off automatically when it is full. Bags were arriving at dozens of loading points but there were not enough staff in the right places to remove them

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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

Related Links

• Blunders not a joke but national disgrace

• How hubris shut Willie’s eyes to catastrophe

• BA faces huge fine for misleading travellers

Multimedia

• Video: Chaos at Terminal 5

• Ben Webster on BA and the blame game

• Heathrow Terminal 5 - the first day

• Video tour: inside Heathrow Terminal Five

The biggest problems were caused by the failure of the automated work-allocation system, which is meant to give staff instructions via handheld computers about where they should go to load and unload bags. The system sent staff to the wrong places and many were unable to find the correct loading bays via the maze of corridors.

One union official said: “BA have tried to save money by getting computers rather than human beings to allocate work. The trouble is, when things began to go wrong there was no one for staff to talk to so they could make a sensible decision. The baggage handlers were just left waiting for instructions on their handheld computers.”

BA and BAA, the Spanish company that operates the airport, held a press conference two weeks ago at which they insisted that the baggage system had back-up systems that could cope with any problems.

Mike Forster, BAA’s strategy director, said then: “We have a world-class baggage system that is going to work perfectly on day one.”

The baggage tag-scanning system was also faulty, directing bags to the wrong destinations. Vanderlande Industries, which has helped to design and supply the baggage system, would make no comment. Alstec, the company operating the bag-handling systems, also declined to comment. The Conservatives said that the fiasco called into question the Government’s plan for a sixth terminal and a third runway.

David Frost, director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: “The shambles is yet another depressing chapter for the UK’s crumbling transport system and sends a depressing message to businesses around the world.”

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