I personally believe that LHR gets an unfair bad press in comparison to other airports that are (in my humble opinion) equally, if not more, stressful to move through.
LHR has been a third world airport for years. The only major city I can think which is worse is LAX TBIT. When a Moscow airport can be talked about favourably in comparison, it shows how bad things have become.
This is all turning into a sorry mess. The baggage system was rumoured to be unreliable some time ago, and BAA should firmly take the blame for that one, but so much more of this mess is down to the perennial BA strategy of trying to do everything on the cheap. In pursuit of the arbitrary 10% operating margin any and every expense has been deemed too great, with staff robbed from one part of the business to take part in hurried training for T5 then thrown into the job unprepared on day one. At check in this morning almost half of the fast bag drop desks were closed. On day one! There aren't enough people in to cope with the disruption, and whilst turning the screws on the staff on a daily basis BA then have the audacity to ask for volunteers to man T5 without pay. Well you can case what the take up was for that offer! Meanwhile the BAA continue their bungling incompetence by providing insufficient parking for staff, leading to gridlock around the staff car parks, and insufficient security staff, leading to long delays for anyone to actually get in, or out, of the terminal. Technological teething problems I can understand, but an awful lot of this seems to stem from BA and the BAAs best efforts to do things on the cheap. Penny wise, pound foolish.
Re: moving flights back to T4, so far only the short haul T4 flights have moved to T5. The vast majority of long haul services are still at T4, and by the looks of it will be for rather more than the 4 weeks currently planned.
According to the BBC: "BA blamed the glitches on problems with "staff familiarisation", which had a knock-on effect on bags and flights."
If this is true and if it's not sorted out overnight then given the months and months of training that has been going on then yes, heads should definitely roll. At the highest level.
Give it time and all will be good. I remember flying out of the new HKG airport a couple of days after it opened and they were having major problems. Look at it now and its one of the best in the world.
The problem in this country is we are too quick to criticise things when not right the 1st time. Did anyone really expect it to be smooth from day 1?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cyba
If this is true and if it's not sorted out overnight then given the months and months of training that has been going on then yes, heads should definitely roll. At the highest level.
They should but they won't. Business leaders are singularly incapable of accepting any responsibility for anything at all - although are all quite capable of accepting fat pay cheques and bonuses. They're just like politicians in that regard.
My thought too. Scale down and move flights back to T4 which in fairness is ok.
I guess they would never do such a thing as it would mean admitting failure, even if it improved the situation.
Most of the flights are still in T4 , with the exception of the short haul stuff.
The only long haul stuff in T5 is the ex T3 MIA and the TI long Haul Operations. God knows what will happen when they move the T4 long haul over next month.
Arriving BA278 LAX pax in the terminal waiting patiently for thier bags while out on the ramp the aircraft sits, awaiting for Baggage staff to arrive for a least 3 hours.
The BA676 IST 4 1/2 hours late .... flight crew out of hours , the list goes on.
It's easy to blame the staff but to be honest the management must take the blame , they were told over and over again that things would not work properly , my god they've been testing it for months, day complete chaos.
This is nothing short of a disaster for BA
They over hyped it , loads of disgruntled staff , so called 'new working practices' which don't really work.
I have just received my Terminal 5 booklet through the post. Perfect timing. Apparently Terminal 5 promises to be "so calm, you'll just flow through". I will apparently "glide through check-in and security" assisted by the "high speed baggage system you can rely on". You are invited to "immerse yourself in pleasure" - and all in the first eight pages.
Why the rolley eyes?! According to the Telegraph article you actually planned to be on the first flight into T5 (why?!?) Surely you didn't honnestly expect there to be anything less than mild chaos on big bang day?!
Exactly! Like tfung, I planned to be on the first flight out of T5 and to return on the last flight from CDG. I've just received a SMS to say that my return has been cancelled. No surprise, tantrum or tears here. A call to BAEC (and I'm not even GGL) which was quickly answered, a pleasant conversation and I'm efficiently rebooked on the first flight back tomorrow morning (which, touch wood, I hope departs!).
"Let's give BA/BAA time"- no. This is the world's busiest airport and an airport with a terrible reputation, so this should have been their chance to shine and deliver. According to Sky News the problems have been made worse by hiding BA and BAA management. I can say that information here at T5 is pathetic; 'we expect an update soon' since midday.
