BA announce new date for move to T5

It will be the end of October before British Airways transfers its full long-haul operation to Heathrow’s ill-starred new Terminal 5 (T5), it was announced today.

BA and Heathrow operator BAA said that after the June 5 move of some long-haul flights from Terminal 4 to T5, the rest of the flights will be transferred in two further phases.

The first of these will be on September 17 and the second at the end of October.

BA had originally planned to move all its long-haul – save some flights to Singapore and Australia – to T5 on April 30.

But this was put back to June after the catastrophic opening of T5 on March 27, when flights were cancelled, bags went astray and huge queues built up.

It was some days before BA was able to run a full service from the £4.3bn (€5.4bn) new terminal that had been officially opened by the Queen on March 14.

Earlier this month, BA announced that the first of the long-haul flights would transfer on June 5.

Before that, BA chief executive Willie Walsh had hinted the full transfer might not take place until around October.

BAA and BA said today: “Terminal 5 is working well, and this phased move has been planned in the interests of our passengers and the smooth operation of Heathrow over the busy summer period.”