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T5 fiasco costs BA at least £16m
Problems associated with the disastrous opening of Heathrow Terminal 5 have cost British Airways at least £16 million.
The costs so far emerged as the airline released its performance figures for last month – the £4.3 billion terminal opened on March 27.
There were 300 short haul flights cancelled following the opening of the new terminal which was affected by baggage delays and disruption.
“The financial impact of these events is estimated to be around £16 million, reflecting all costs associated with the disruption and lost revenue opportunities,†BA said yesterday.
“Although there remains a small number of cancellations for today and tomorrow, the Terminal 5 performance is steadily improving.â€
BA hopes to operate a full schedule of flights from the new terminal by tomorrow (Saturday) and aims to move more long haul flights to T5 on April 30.
The airline also said passenger traffic was down by 2.8% in March, with a 5% drop in premium and a 2.3% fall in economy carryings.
The load factor fell by 0.9 points to 75.4% over March 2007.
“Comparisons between March 2007 and 2008 are complicated by the timing of Easter, which fell in April in 2007, and by the de-linking of UK school holidays from the Easter period and into the middle of April,†BA said.
“This altered both premium and non-premium travel patterns, an impact which is also likely to be seen in April’s statistics.â€
The carrier described market conditions as being “unchanged†adding: “Underlying conditions in long haul premium traffic continue to be strong, while short haul premium and long haul non-premium continue to be weak.â€
by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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