Snow Causes More Delays at Heathrow’s Terminal 5
23rd April 2008
The weather caused yet more problems at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 this week, after the heaviest snow in two decades prompted a number of flight cancellations.
Since the terminal opened at the end of March, it has been plagued by baggage problems that caused major flight cancellations. There were an estimated 28,000 pieces of luggage lost at the airport, many of which have now been sent to Memphis and Milan in order to be sorted and returned to their rightful owner.
After the baggage chaos had calmed, British Airways had hoped to run a full flight schedule for the first time in its new terminal, but Mother Nature intervened. BAA, which operates the troubled airport, said that 185 flights in and out of Heathrow had to be cancelled last Sunday due to snow and ice. A British Airways spokesperson was keen to emphasise that the delays, which were thought to affect one in 10 flights, were not due to Terminal 5’s existing problems. The spokesperson 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.”
British Airways, who have sole occupancy of Terminal 5, said that air traffic control had taken the precautionary measure of reducing the amount of flights that could take off and land each hour on Sunday. Earlier in the day, the runways were shut down altogether, as workers scrambled to remove risky ice from the tarmac.
Meanwhile, the snow also affected Gatwick Airport. A number of long-haul flights that were scheduled to arrive at the airport were diverted to Bournemouth, Manchester, Stansted and a number of other airports, so the runway could be cleared of snow. BAA, which also owns Gatwick, said that at least a dozen flights were cancelled from the airport as a result of the weather.
Source:
Associated Press
Daily Telegraph