British Airways is to delaying the transfer of its long-haul flight operations to London Heathrow's new terminal until June. The new Terminal 5 has suffered severe problems since its recent launch.
Almost all of British Airways' Terminal 4 long-haul services had been due to switch on April 30.
'We are making this decision in the interests of customers,' BA chief executive Willie Walsh said in a statement. He said that although Terminal 5 was now working well, BA needed to have confidence that good service could be maintained when the terminal was handling larger numbers of customers.
Terminal 5 opened amid great fanfare on March 27 but was immediately hit by logistical problems. It was not until April 8 that BA was able to offer a full short-haul flight schedule in and out of the terminal, which cost £4.3 billion to build.
Thousands of passengers lost their bags and hundreds of flights had to be delayed or cancelled because of the debacle which has cost the airline at least £16m, according to its own estimates.
