BA admits lack of training contributed to T5 fiasco

Terminal Five's opening was not as smooth as had been expected

British Airways has admitted that it did not properly train workers to use new systems and equipment at Heathrow Terminal Five (T5) and compromised on the testing schedule as it did not want to delay the terminal's opening.

In a report published by the House of Commons Transport Committee, BA accepted that staff were not sufficiently familiar with the systems, and that IT trials had not been thorough enough.

However, BA said that pushing back the opening date was not an option as the cost of delaying would have been "significantly greater" than that incurred as a result of the glitches.

"The idea of just delaying things by a month was not necessarily an option that was available to us," BA chief executive Willie Walsh told the Committee.

"I think, in reality, what we would have been considering was a delay of a season, which is from March to the end of October, and in effect to delay the move for a full six months until the winter scheduling season because this is very complex.

"My regret is that we did compromise on the testing programme. We knew this was a risk, it was a calculated risk and a risk that I agreed to take."

Airport operator BAA, which had worked in partnership with BA on the programme, said that some 15,000 volunteers had participated in trials ahead of the terminal's opening aimed at ironing out any problems in areas such as the luggage system.

But BAA said later that, regardless of testing, it was "inevitable" that there would be bedding-in issues once real passenger bags were introduced into the system.

While the trials may have succeeded in allowing improvements and enabling members of the public to experience T5, they failed in the ultimate objective of getting the system to a point where it worked well enough to cope with the opening successfully, said the House of Commons report.

"The chaotic scenes of late March and early April could and should have been avoided through better preparation and more effective joint working," the report stated.

BA did not contest the comments made in the report, and added that T5 is providing "the best customer experience Heathrow has known for very many years" .

The airline said in a statement that more than 94 per cent of flights at T5 departed punctually and that baggage performance is now "significantly better".

"Terminal 5's opening is history," BA said. "Its present is a great success. We are resolutely committed to keeping it so."