Flights cancelled in Terminal 5 chaos

British Airways cancelled dozens of flights today as travel chaos continued at Heathrow’s new £4.3 billion Terminal 5.

British Airways cancelled dozens of flights today as travel chaos continued at Heathrow’s new £4.3 billion Terminal 5.

By 8am, 36 flights - all of them short-haul - had been cut, and BA had brought in extra staff to cope with passengers who had started queueing as early as 4am today.

Amid jostling in the queues, some missed their flights - blaming a lack of desks open to cope with the large numbers, and misinformation.

A BA spokesman said: "We will have to see how the system holds up. We hope we will do a better job than yesterday."

Today was the second day of operation of the new terminal which was officially opened earlier this month.

The hopes of BA and airport operator BAA that the first day would be a triumph were wrecked by a succession of teething problems which led to flight cancellations, long queues and delayed baggage.

Many passengers were left stranded overnight, with some finding hotels, but others forced to sleep on benches of the terminal floor.

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