Cloudy Skies for Heathrow's New Terminal

LONDON, March 31, 2008 — -- Five days after British Airways opened a brand-new terminal at London's Heathrow airport, passengers continued to face flight cancellations amid a growing crisis over lost baggage.

British Airways told ABC News on Monday that it had misplaced a mountain of more than 20,000 bags.

This is not exactly a new development for the airline. According to a study carried out in the last quarter by the Association of European Airlines, BA was the carrier most likely to lose bags among its European competitors.

However, many had hoped that the establishment of a new, high-tech baggage handling system at Heathrow's Terminal Five would restore the airline's reputation and performance.

So far, operations at the new terminal have been turbulent.

Fasten Your Seat Belts

Since the facility opened on Thursday, 299 flights have been cancelled, according to Anne Morton, communications manager for the airline.

On Monday, BA announced that it would cancel 54 flights out of a planned 394. Tomorrow, the airline plans to cancel a further 52 out of 392 services.

The immediate future looks cloudy as best, with the airline saying it's not sure when the problems will be fixed.

In an interview with ABC News, Morton confided that although the airline's aim "is to get to 100 per cent as quickly as possible … as yet we have not put a timeframe on it."

She added: "We have to be confident in the terminal's overall performance before we can go up to 100 percent."

As cancellations continue throughout the week, many in the UK face disruption to their travel plans. Over 60 percent of schools will close for Easter break, which begins on Friday, and many families will now have to rethink their travel plans.

But cancellations are only one of the many problems plaguing the new terminal.

Morton said that "technical failures of the new baggage system" had caused over 20,000 bags to go missing.

Now, these bags will be further delayed as they need "to be re-screened for security reasons before they can be loaded on to a subsequent aircraft," she explained.