UPDATE 1-Snow forces BA to cancel 114 flights at Heathrow
April 6th, 2008 | by admin |(Updates with new figures and Gatwick cancellations)
LONDON, April 6 (Reuters) - After nearly two weeks ofbaggage chaos and hundreds of cancelled flights, London Heathrowairport was hit by bad weather on Sunday which forced BritishAirways (BAY.L: Quote, Profile, Research) to cancel 114 flights.
Two runways at Heathrow were briefly closed for de-icing assnow fell in London and air traffic control reduced the numberof take-off and landing slots.
Twelve BA flights were cancelled on Saturday after airportoperator BAA was unable to fix a software glitch in the systemthat matches passengers’ luggage to their flight. But thatproblem had been fixed by Sunday.
“In the early hours of this morning, the software problem inHeathrow Terminal 5 was resolved and the baggage system isfunctioning well,” said BAA, which is owned by Spain’s Ferrovial(FER.MC: Quote, Profile, Research).
“The principal challenge for Heathrow is the snow and icearound the airport. We have well-rehearsed procedures in placeto deal with this weather and all areas of the airport have beenextensively de-iced and treated.”
BA has been forced to cancel hundreds of flights from thestate-of-the-art, 4.3 billion pound ($8.6 billion) terminal 5since it opened on March 27, hitting the airline’s share priceand becoming a national embarrassment.
Tens of thousands of bags have gone missing, costing BAabout 16 million pounds ($32 million) since the terminal’sopening last month.
Those initial problems were caused by BA staff strugglingwith parking, security and access to the terminal, which is thesize of 50 soccer pitches and was heralded by BA as the bestfacility of its kind in the world.
The bad weather also forced BA to cancel 32 flights fromGatwick. (Reporting by John Joseph; editing by Andrew Roche)
