The opening of Heathrow Airport'sTerminal 5 has been overshadowed by
technical problems with the baggage system.
A spokeswoman for airport owner BAA said British Airways
ground-handling staff were experiencing problems with logging onto
the system, resulting in delays for arriving passengers, who were
left waiting for their bags.
The terminal opened at 4am today after being beset by problems
yesterday, when BAA was forced to temporarily pull its biometrics
fingerprinting system after the
Information Commissioner raised concerns about its data
protection implications.
BAA said it was working to correct the problem. "The problems
with the baggage system affected a small number of flights this
morning," said a spokeswoman. "Things are performing better now.
There's been an impact on some services, but it will hopefully be
resolved. We are waiting to see how things pan out."
British Airways hopes the
new baggage system will improve its track record on baggage
handling - currently the worst in Europe. BAA designed the system,
which uses barcodes to track bags as they are moved around the
airport.
The system was designed with Dutch company Vanderlande and IBM.
The IBM software works out where the bags are supposed to be going,
and logistics software works out the best way to get there.