British Airways has apologised to its Terminal 5 passengers.

British Airways (BA) has apologised to its passengers flying in and out of Heathrow’s new Terminal 5 building following a number of flight and luggage delays.

Since the terminal opened on Thursday 27 March, passengers have experienced flight delays, cancellations, and lost or delayed luggage.

The airline has confirmed that it is working towards increasing the number of flights operating in the days ahead – all long-haul flights from the terminal will go ahead as planned, although some domestic and European flights remain cancelled.

BA’s Chief Executive, Willie Walsh, apologised to passengers: “Since Thursday, when Terminal 5 opened, we accept that the service we have provided our customers has not been good enough.  We are extremely sorry for this.

“We are working hard to tackle the difficulties we have had with the terminal’s baggage system. From time to time problems have developed that were not encountered during the extensive trials. The manufacturers and a team of engineers and IT specialists from BAA and BA are working together to fix the problems.”

The airline is sending the bags of European passengers to a specialist sorting facility in Milan in order to facilitate the baggage handling process, while customers in the US will receive their bags through flights departing for the US from Heathrow’s Terminal 4.

Mr Walsh was positive that its operations at the new Terminal 5 would improve: “Both BA and BAA have invested an enormous amount of time and effort to create Terminal 5. We remain confident that these early difficulties can be overcome, and that the terminal will be highly valued by customers and our staff in the near future and for many years to come.”