Bosses at British Airways and BAA will be grilled by MPs
over the technical problems at Heathrow'sTerminal Five, after the Transport
Select Committee announced an inquiry into the building's
problematic opening.
Just a few hours after the terminal opened on March 27, the
baggage system started experiencing problems. BA cancelled
hundreds of flights as a mountain of lost luggage grew and
thousands of passengers had to leave without their bags.
Both British Airways, which has exclusive use of the terminal,
and Heathrow owner BAA, have not given details of the issues behind
the problems. But MPs on the select committee say they hope the
inquiry, on May 7, will show exactly what happened.
"There has been all sorts of speculation about why it went so
wrong, and hopefully the inquiry will shed some light on that,"
said committee member Clive Efford.
Another member, Lee Scott, said, "Obviously something went
drastically wrong, and we need to work out whether it was IT or
other aspects."
British Airways has faced accusations that the terminal was
understaffed, because of the necessity of keeping baggage handlers
at terminals one and four at the same time. But the airline said
the plan was always to "do a gradual move" with most long haul
flights staying at Terminal 4 for the time being.
Keith Bill, from the
British Airline Pilots' Association, said, "The management took
its eye off the ball.
Undoubtedly both BA and BAA were at fault."
Clive Efford said the committee will question executives on a
"whole range of issues" including whether there were sufficient
staff, whether the security vetting systems were too slow to get
staff into their places at the right time, whether the capacity of
the system was appropriate, and whether there were enough
trials.
Gary Pearce, officer at union GMB, represents some of the
check-in staff at Terminal 5. He said, "They haven't been told
exactly what caused the problems. The main issue for them was that
they had to deal with angry passengers taking their frustration out
on them."
Terminal5: the expert view >>