It’s terminal, Jim …

… But not as we know it.

British Airports Authority (BAA) spent £4.3 billion on creating their brand spanking new Terminal 5 (T5) at Heathrow Airport in London, England. After months of preparation, including “live” testing of operations, it went operational today to much fanfare.

And promptly fell into total chaos.

The most embarrassing failure? The vaunted baggage handling system, supposedly designed to process over 12,000 pieces of luggage every hour – apparently, the workers were unable to log in to the system, resulting in flights being cancelled, and several that weren’t left with passengers but without their bags.

This is incredible borkage for British Airways (BA), which already is reported to have the second worst record when it comes to misplacing baggage. BA has exclusive use of the new Terminal 5, so I wonder how today’s travesty is going to be recorded in their metrics?

BA (and BAA) played down the whole thing, with Heathrow’s Logistics Director saying there was bound to be a “bedding in period” – perhaps not the best phrase to describe when referring to airports, given the number of people sleeping on benches because of delayed flights most of them have.

Whilst any major operation is bound to have a problem or two, an entire baggage handling system failing, despite claims of testing before the opening of the new terminal, seems to be in keeping with Heathrow’s usual level of (in)efficiency. All the baggage handlers who were unable to log into the system only just discovered this, today?

What are they going to do when they start getting regular arrivals and departures of Airbus A380s and Boeing 787 Dreamliners, with the increase in passengers per-plane those will bring? Throw up their hands once more, offer a half-hearted “mea culpa” whilst trying to gloss over the implications this level of failure offers of their abilities, and hope no-one notices?

BAA/BA have had months of testing, months to train people, and still their system came crashing to the ground on its very first day. Why weren’t they ready for today, why did they have people without sufficient training working airside, and why is no-one bothering to ask them to explain events?

BAA wants to expand Heathrow to add a third runway (in the process destroying the village of Sipson) – If they can’t even get the infrastructure working on the first day of the new terminal being operational, I dread to think just how badly they can bork that project as well!

Given the British predilection for giving the appearance of accessibility whilst avoiding anything to do with providing accessibility, I can’t help but wonder how many people with disabilities were left stranded by this wholesale failure of T5s infrastructure without any recourse too. Baggage going missing for someone without disabilities is bad enough, but was any of the baggage that was unable to be checked in wheelchairs, or other essential items?

When she opened T5, the Queen called it “a 21st Century gateway to Britain”.

It just seems people will have to wait until the 22nd century before their baggage catches up I guess …

My advice? Book your flight to Dublin Airport instead – Ireland’s a nicer place to visit anyways

[Updated 3/27/2008 @ 1803 EST]

It seems checking in baggage at T5 is suspended until Friday, according to the BBC News Online website. There’s no word about what happens to inbound baggage though – I imagine those using British Airways on flights from overseas will be prevented from checking in their baggage. This should make for one cute nightmare for those returning from holidays – where are they going to leave their bags in the meantime?

[Updated 3/27/2008 @ 1911 EST]

Yep, the glorious British attention to accessibility does seem to be at work, with this news (again, from the BBC News Online website):

One passenger in a wheelchair was stuck on a flight arriving into T5 from Glasgow for more than an hour – and then when he was transported to the terminal he realised he could not get up the kerb.

“I couldn’t even get into the building without getting up a step,” Matt Duffy told the BBC.

“It is totally unbelievable as far as I am concerned.”

Oh come on, it’s perfectly believable!

I just wonder if BAA managed to finagle themselves an exemption from the seemingly useless and practically toothless “Disability Discrimination Act” similar to the ones bus and rail operators managed to obtain, meaning BAA wouldn’t have to actually care if they have kerb cuts or not.

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