Terminal 5 hit by baggage glitch

Heathrow's Terminal Five was hit by a luggage glitch yesterday which left passengers unable to check in.

The problem caused a baggage backlog but shortly after 6pm the fault was fixed, a British Airways (BA) spokesman said.

Terminal 5 had a shambolic opening last year when problems with baggage reclaim forced BA to cancel 34 flights on the first day alone.

The airline's spokesman said today: "The Heathrow airport operator BAA informed us of a problem with its baggage system in Terminal 5 today.

"As a result of the problem some passengers have been unable to check in bags. Check-in has now reopened but there will be some delays.

"We apologise to our customers for the inconvenience. We are doing everything we can to minimise disruption."

A spokeswoman for the British Airports Authority said flights had continued running to schedule despite the problem, and said earlier delays of more than two hours were not related to the fault.

She said: "There is a problem with the baggage sorting system at Heathrow's Terminal 5. We have temporarily suspended luggage check-in and are working hard with British Airways to minimise any disruption to passengers and resume normal operations as soon as possible."

No flights were cancelled as a result of the problem, BA said.