Travel Weekly Blog

Let's hope T5 does not turn into Heathrow 'business as usual'.
Customer service has long been a distant memory at the airport and BAA is only interested in running a Bluewater West.
A shiny £4bn terminal will not make much difference to those who have to hike to gates, sit on floors due to lack of seating, struggle for information and consume overpriced fare.
T5's troubles are consistent with the shoddy approach to transport and customer service in this country - and the chance to shop at one of three T5 Harrods won't change that!
Paul 'writing about T5 since 1994' Norris - former aviation correspondent, Travel Weekly

Thanks Paul. I don't buy the line that T5 will fix all of Heathrow's problems any more than you do. So in retrospect "There is no reason to assume it cannot deliver on all BA and BAA's promises" was a bit much - anything they said about the knock-on effects on other terminals should certainly be taken with a pinch of salt.

But as for the improved baggage handling and wait times that we were promised within Terminal 5, I don't think the last 36 hours prove they can't happen.

"... There is no reason to assume it cannot deliver on all BA and BAA's promises when it is past what the airline has called 'teething troubles'. ..."

And there is no reason to assume it can.

It is still being run by the same incompetents that brought us the current chaos. An airport is not static, there will always be "teething" problems when new systems are introduced, to not prepare for them is criminal.

What is also clear is that the new baggage handling system has no elasticity between the three components. If one component is operating at less demand efficiency the system quickly (immediately?) congests. The demand was at 50% (40k bags/hr). What would it ahve been like at 80k bags/hr, the design load? BA's response what hysterical in both senses, don't carry your bags on the trip. A dose of realism might be useful.

@Dave

"And there is no reason to assume it can."

Of course not - I didn't say there was. my point is we don't know either way at this stage, so let's wait and see what happens when these few days of disruption are past.

As I said in my response to Paul, I think my original 'all BA/BAA's promises' was a bit much. But I'm certainly not prepared to dismiss the possibility of improved baggage handling and check in/security at this early stage.

I'm with you on the lack of preparation being 'criminal'. I refer to the size and scale of the move above, but that's an explanation, not an excuse...

We were coming in from Dusseldorf on Thursday, supposed to continue to Capetown. Suppose what? BA’s wonderful T5 lost my husbands wheelchair (not to talk about all other luggage) - so today, (it’s Friday evening) were back to home in Germany, no holidays in Southafrica, the wheelchair still lost (not to mention the rest of our luggage). Any words of sorry from BA? Nope.

Sorry to hear that Zypresse. I hope you're reunited with everything soon.

To be clear, I'm not saying this has been anything less than a nightmare for those affected. I'm just saying a botched launch doesn't mean T5 is an out-and-out failure.

I guess no Briton will ever stand up to make hilarious comments on disruptions in Italian airports. Friday 28th was a nightmare and i am still missing my bag. What a flop!! I swear I will never fly through LHR again, let alone BA!!

Still... would a similar cock-up happen in, ooh, say Singapore or Hong Kong?
[a friend of mine recently suggested Britain as the "world's wealthiest 'developing nation'" which is a _bit_ harsh (but the T5 woes suggest he has a point...)]

As an aside, I'm about ready to give up on Heathrow. Not because of the old, shoddy buildings (T4, T5 excluded I guess) but mostly because of the ludicrous amounts of 'security' and obsession with identification by arrogant and unfriendly security and immigration personnel - with the latter, of course, being civil servants paid for by us(!)...
Of course, this may be the same at all other UK airports too, I don't know - perhaps the thing to do is to take the train to Holland and fly from there (or just drive everywhere...).

Hi Marcus - long time no see. I know what you mean about this not happening elsewhere, even if I find it hard to conceive of a comparable move at any other airport (I'm thinking about BA's sheer presence at Heathrow, and the fact that it was moving pretty much *everything* to T5 in one night).

Also, thanks for throwing in 'woes' - we're running out of synonyms here. Disruption... fiasco... chaos... disaster... ;)

Hi Nathan. It's been a while - will have to come up to London for a beer or five some day soon!

On BA's continuing, ahem, T5 'misery' (check out that online Thesaurus...) - why move _everything_ at once? Seems to me that it would be better to transition from the old facilities to the new ones _gradually_ (say a few weeks or so). Granted, might be slightly more expensive to run two concurrent organisations for a limited 'breaking-in' period (compared to an overnight transition) but then what is the current baggage, hm, 'debacle', costing BA/BAA?

Note that, historically, there have been at least a few large airport moves of (I think) comparable scale around the world. The one that springs to mind is Kai Tak (in Hong Kong) moving over to Chek Lap Kok back in 1998 (?).

But are you implying there are more difficulties involved when you are moving from one location to another at the same airport? [as opposed to moving the entire airport to another site]

A gradual move would certainly have been better. Frankly I'm not sure whether the problem with that would have been logistics and cost, as you suggest, or PR - a gradual move doesn't pop like a grand opening, does it? I suppose the fact that Heathrow is operating so close to maximum capacity would have made it harder to do this in a gradual, careful way.

Re Hong Kong, yes, it was a huge move - and like T5, it was a disaster when it opened: International Herald Tribune: Hong Kong's Airport Can't Get Off Ground.