Terminal 5 cleaning up its mess

London’s Heathrow International Airport’s new Terminal 5 has been a disaster since its opening last week. The facility that was hoped to ease the airport’s notorious congestion and delay has become an embarrassment for operators, as luggage from the first weekend’s worth of flights is still being sorted and returned to passengers after the luggage system broke down on the very first afternoon the high-tech air hub was supposed to wow the world.

The cancellation count as of week’s end was 431 flights since the opening day of March 28th. The lost baggage count was over 28,000 pieces of luggage. British Airways has said that a good number of bags are currently being sorted in Milan, Italy to be returned to European passengers. Willie Walsh, Chief executive officer of British Airways has apologised many times in public, in statements and quotes, but the British Chamber of Commerce is calling the T5 debut harangue nothing less than a public relations disaster.