Willie Walsh admitted yesterday that he was aware of problems with Heathrow's
Terminal 5 before it opened — and had discussed delaying its first day.
“It was a calculated risk and one I decided to take,” the chief executive of
British Airways told MPs yesterday. “You can't point the finger at anyone
else.”
Despite his regret at the failings, he said that the cost of delaying BA's
move to the building would have been “many times” greater than the costs
incurred in the tumultuous first days.
However, Mr Walsh refused to discuss the dismissal of two senior BA executives
in the aftermath of the fiasco, when hundreds of flights were cancelled and
thousands of suitcases were lost because of a catastrophic failure of the
computer systems.
Although Mr Walsh has held on to his job, Gary Kirkwood, BA's head of
operations, and David Noyes, head of customer services, both left the
company.
“I'm not prepared to talk about that,” he told MPs on the Commons Transport
Select Committee. He claimed that his relationship with the management of
BAA, the airport operator, was still “good”.
Mr Walsh admitted that staff were unfamiliar with the building they were
working in and that the baggage handling system failed — a software filter
ensured that the computer system remained in training mode.
These failings, combined with a plethora of “teething problems”, led to chaos,
with hundreds of cancelled and delayed flights and a mountain of lost
luggage.
His frank evidence to the committee was in marked contrast to the evidence
given earlier by the head of BAA, which owns the new building.
Colin Matthews, BAA chief executive, told MPs that five weeks after the
debacle his company had still to investigate “who knew what, or when” or
precisely who or what was to blame, nor could he say whether or not
executives had been aware of the problems that emerged before the opening of
the terminal.
According to Mr Walsh, the chief problem was that staff were insufficiently
familiarised with the building and the equipment that they would be
operating.
A six-month training programme had been scheduled before the opening,
beginning on September 17 — “when the building was supposed to have been
completed”. He added: “It was not fully complete. To some extent we were
showing them round a building that was different on the day it opened ... We
knew this was a risk,” he said.
This combined with problems with the baggage system. More than 23,000 bags
were “misconnected” — the last time the situation was reviewed, attempts
were still under way to reconnect 125 of those with their owners.
Then there was the problem of a software training filter being accidentally
left on. The server lacked capacity, airport jetties needed to be
recalibrated by engineers, staff had problems clearing internal security and
getting to their positions.
They also initially had problems getting into the company car parks and some
of the lifts were not working. Though these problems could have been easily
dealt with alone, together they led to chaos in the first days of Terminal
5.
He said that the decision to open on March 27 had been taken the previous
summer and he thought this decision had been reviewed in the months leading
up to the opening ceremony.
Before Mr Walsh gave evidence, MPs had expressed incredulity that neither the
chairman nor the chief executive of BAA were able to give specific answers
as to what had gone wrong.
Mr Matthews said: “I am not hiding anything. I have concluded that my first
responsibility was to fix issues with passengers. I have not made time
available to have an investigation on who knew what or when.”
He told MPs: “There were trials and tests of the baggage system. With the
benefit of hindsight, we were not successful.”
Mr Matthews only formally joined the company on April 1 though he was present
at the opening as he sought to get to grips with his new role.
Sir Nigel Rudd, BAA chairman, said that Mr Matthews had replaced the outgoing
chief executive because he possessed greater operational experience. He told
the committee that the problems at Terminal 5 constituted the greatest
failing of his career.
“This is clearly a huge embarrassment to me, the company and the board,” he
said. “Nothing can take away that sense of failure. We all worked extremely
hard to make this work. We all believed, genuinely, that this was going to
be a great opening.”
On time = Corners have been cut!
On Budget = We completed this by cutting back on that!
Mark Crotty, Addlestone, Surrey
Lost passengers, Lost reputation and Lost bags. It was Mr Walsh's fault. Am I the only one that can see what should happen.
Ian Jones, Reading, UK
If only the redoubtable Gwynth Dunwoodie,the harridan of the Commons Transport Select Committee, were still with us.
Simes, Sevenoaks,
Went through T5 last weekend. It was absolutely brilliant. Staff frantically trying to make up for the initial fiasco. Passengers have deserted in droves. They should return in their own interest.
Dave Gunner
Geneva
Dave Gunner, geneva, switzerland
I can't believe a one day delay in the move would have cost BA more than the T5 fiasco. It's a shame they couldn't come clean and say "we aren't ready", I think they would have held on to more customers, which ultimately will fill their planes.
Harold West, Birmingham,
I flew into T5 on the 29/4, we still have 1 bag still missing, our travel agents advised us that thousands of bags currently await return. We had a flight cancelled, tried to use the BA online claim process it does not work. We have 3 customers complaints logged from 19/4 with no response fron BA.
Martin Breen, Ormskirk, UK
Flew into T5 29/3, 1 bag still missing, connecting flight cancelled. Online claim process not working, we have 3 complaints logged with BA from 19/4 onwards no response from BA to date. Mr Walsh needs to get hold of his business quickly. Our travel agent advised 000's bags still missing as at 3/5.
Martin Breen, Ormskirk, UK
I have just flown into and out of T5. Contrary to BAA and BA testimony at the Common's transport subcommittee, T5 is clearly not working at anything approaching a reasonable level, as on-site BA and BAA staff will freely acknowledge when asked. As a knock on result T4 is also in considerable chaos.
Nigel Bradshaw, Karlshamn, Sweden