Heathrow's new terminal suffers third day of chaos

Mar 29, 2008, 14:20 GMT

London - Travellers at London Heathrow airport's brand new Terminal 5 faced a third day of cancelled flights and long delays Saturday.

A spokeswoman for the sole airline to use the terminal, British Airways (BA), said more than 50 of Saturday's scheduled 350 flights would have to be cancelled owing to technical difficulties.

Passengers would also face further cancellations on Sunday, she said.

The 4.3-billion-pound (8.6-billion-dollar) sparkling glass-and- steel terminal has been beset with problems since the baggage- handling system failed as it opened to the public for the first time on Thursday.

Since then more than 100 flights have been cancelled while others have faced serious delays, and those that did take off did so sometimes without luggage on board.

BA chief Willie Walsh apologized Friday for the chaos, which the British media have described as a national embarrassment.

'We clearly disappointed a number of people and we sincerely apologize,' Walsh said.

He rejected calls for his resignation.

BA has tried to reassure passengers that it is working to remove the problems, saying it hoped to have the terminal at 'full functionality' during Sunday.