New Heathrow airport terminal opens in chaos

Anna Chan: The opening of London Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5 ended in chaos on Thursday. Its new baggage handling system had a major malfunction, canceling dozens of flights. The state-of-the-art baggage system is meant to help smooth the journeys of millions of passengers traveling through the world's busiest international air gateway. But the first day saw at least 33 short-haul flights canceled. Enraged passengers had to go through hours of delays. [Passenger, Terminal 5]: "It's a disaster. There's no bags coming through. We came in at 10 o'clock from San Francisco. It's 11:15 now... there's no sign of our bags." [Passenger, Terminal 5]: "We had to wait probably well over an hour. Yeah, it's a bit disappointing really." Passengers wanting to fly late on Thursday were told they would only be able to take hand luggage on board. British Airways, which has its new home at T5, blamed the disruption on "teething problems." It apologized, saying customers who had not checked-in could travel with hand baggage only, re-book or receive a refund. Baggage handling was only one of a series of problems facing passengers. Others included car parking troubles, staff security screening and general confusion over the unfamiliar layout. The 4.3 billion pound terminal is the equivalent size of about 50 soccer pitches.

YouTube | March 29, 2008