Luggage Chaos In London

The first impression most of our American visitors get of Britain is not a good one, because the first place you often see is Heathrow Airport. It's massive, but the trouble is it's not big enough. The terminals are just a seething mass of frustrated humanity; huge lines snake back from check ins, security barriers and immigration controls. There are just too many people.

And then came the brand new Terminal 5 .... a brand new home for British Airways .... and a brand new nine billion dollars on a state of the art center to ensure that your arrival in this country would be a pleasure not a pain.

And so to the opening, last week, and so to the chaos. A series of small system failures rapidly escalated into a crisis, and the system for taking luggage from the check in to the plane simply collapsed. Flight after flight was cancelled, and thousands of angry passengers demanded compensation, a hotel for the night or simply some information on when they might escape.

It wasn't good. It was, in the words of the boss of British Airways, a disaster.

A week later, they are still trying to sort out thousands of bags which stayed at the Terminal when their owners left on those first few chaotic days. British Airways said there were 19,000 of them. The Government added to the confusion by suggesting the real figure was 28,000. A spokesman later cleared up the confusion by telling us it depended which way you counted them. Anyway, 19,000 seems more than enough.

As I write there are still mounds of luggage being shuffled around the world in search of an owner. Last I heard one load was being flown to Milan, Italy, from where they will be taken by road to their owners. The airline is still cancelling up to 50 flights a day, to ensure that those who manage to fly do so with their baggage actually on board. And each cancellation, each lost piece of luggage, is another frustrated customer and another blow to the airline and indeed the country.

And you know the truly frustrating thing? Latest reports are that apart from the cancellations the place is running beautifully. You hardly have a chance to get your bag to the check in before it is snatched away and taken to the plane. Why didn't we start like that, with perhaps half the services, just to check it was working? Don't ask me.
By Peter Allen