By KUNA
London : A number of flights were cancelled Monday at Londons Heathrow’s Terminal 5 because of yesterday’s bad weather, British Airways said.
British Airways said there would be 34 cancellations today representing around 10 percent of flights at Terminal 5. A spokesman said: “This is not caused by the baggage system, this is simply because of the weather yesterday… there were a number of aircraft that were out of position which means that had a knock-on effect with the schedule today.
” The news comes after the misery continued for passengers at Terminal 5 yesterday when British Airways were forced to cancel 126 flights, the majority due to snow. BA began the day with 12 flights – six in, six out – scrapped from its schedule because of a technical fault with airport operator BAA’s automated baggage system, which arose last Saturday. By mid-morning, BAA announced that engineers, who worked through the night, had managed to fix the fault. But by that stage, a new and far less controllable problem had begun to play havoc with BA’s flight schedule – the weather. The total number of flights cancelled yesterday were 126 flights.
— Almost 250 flights in and out of T5 were cancelled during its first four days because of glitches with its new baggage-handling system.
The rocky start of the 4.3 billion pounds T5 has prompted calls from the main opposition Conservatives for an inquiry into the “chaos and confusion” at the airport.
Many observers consider the situation a “dreadful national embarrassment.” Meanwhile, the worst of the wintry weather might be over for most of the UK, but forecasters predicted more wintry showers in some parts of the country today.
It follows heavy snowfalls across the country yesterday with roads blocked and flights from Gatwick and Heathrow airports delayed and diverted.