BA blames Heathrow T5 chaos on IT testing slip ups

MPs have told British Airways and airport operator BAA they "could and should have avoided" the Heathrow T5 baggage chaos.

Both BA and BAA have been criticised for "serious failings" in a parliamentary transport committee report into the shambolic opening of the £4.3bn terminal in March this year.

The report, released today, says "what should have been an occasion of national pride was in fact an occasion of national embarrassment" as the baggage system failed to process more than 20,000 bags during the first days of its operation.

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In a memo to the committee BA admits that end-to-end integration testing of key BA operational IT systems was delayed until 31 October, which it says "affected our ability to run both the proving trials and staff familiarisation".

In the report, BA is quoted as accepting the committee's findings that training and testing had been insufficient saying: "We should not have absorbed the continuing building delays by compromising the time needed to complete the full testing and familiarisation process as planned."

"We should have delayed the move," BA concludes.

The transport committee report notes the impact of a lack of joint groundwork saying: "The chaotic scenes of late March and early April could, and should have been avoided through better preparation and more effective joint working."

However, according to BA, there have been significant improvements since the March opening of T5, with the terminal "now providing the best customer experience Heathrow has known for many years", with "significantly improved baggage handling".

BA and BAA now hold regular joint meetings between managers, in order to review baggage operations at T5 and to monitor the timetable for switching remaining flights from T4 to T5.

Since the debacle BAA told the committee it has established a joint BA/BAA crisis management team and set up a direct link between BAA and BA baggage and logistics teams.

BAA added the difficulties are now behind it.

"Terminal 5 has… been used by more than 11.5 million people. We regularly exceed performance targets for cleanliness, wayfinding and security queues have been less than five minutes nearly 98 per cent of the time," the airport operator said in a statement to silicon.com.