Travel Weekly Blog

Five days in and Heathrow Terminal 5 is still struggling - today's cancellation tally is 27 domestic and short haul flights. Long haul seems to be okay.

Last week I wrote that we shouldn't make long-term assumptions about Terminal 5 based on its shambolic opening, and while I stand by that, there is still plenty to say about how poor BA's preparation, customer service and crisis management have been over the past few days.

My brother made an outsider's diagnosis: BA had shown 'no concern for the infantry'. Our own stablemate Xpert HR said that Terminal 5 'will crop up in every change management training programme for years to come', and aviation union Unite is now urging both BA and BAA to 'listen to Terminal 5 workers'.

That is more or less what you would expect a union to say, of course, and to talk about the fortunes of BA's workers while holidaymakers are stranded is a difficult course to steer.

But the two are inextricably linked. Poor orientation and training of staff means a poor experience for passengers. If Terminal 5 workers can't find the car park, the terminal will open understaffed. If Terminal 5 workers haven't been properly trained, the baggage system will go into meltdown.

Machines and systems are one thing; as The Times wrote on Saturday, the logistical problems at Terminal 5 are 'dismaying, but fixable'. If anything should worry us in the long term, it's BA's apparent failure to get the 'people stuff' right.

Nathan Midgley, web producer